
Glass L B lt>D7 



A COMPARISON OF TENDENCIES IN 

SECONDARY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND 

AND THE UNITED STATES 



By 
James William Norman 



Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements 

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 

in the Faculty of Philosophy 

Columbia University 



Published by 

(Eeactjera College, Columbia WLnibtvuitp 

New York City 
1922 



( 



A COMPARISON OF TENDENCIES IN 
SECONDARY EDUCATION IN ENGLAND 

AND THE UNITED STATES $Jl£L 



/'"'I 



By 
James William Norman 



Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements 

for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 

in the Faculty of Philosophy 

Columbia University 



Published by 

tKeacfjcrs! College, Columota Wlnibtxsitv 

New York City 
1922 



Vita 



Copyright, IQ22, by James William Norman 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

3SCEIVED 

DEC 141922 

TO£UiVJ£NTis DJViSIOi 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

Hearty acknowledgments are due to Dr. Kandel of Teachers 
College who was of invaluable assistance in formulating and plan- 
ning the work; to Professors Kilpatrick and Briggs of the same 
institution for helpful criticisms as the work of investigation 
progressed; to my sister, Miss Quillie Norman, and Mr. J. D. 
Jackson who helped to correct the manuscript; and to my wife 
through whose sympathetic cooperation it has been possible to 
bring the investigation to completion. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

THE NEED OF A COMPREHENSIVE REORGANIZATION 
OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Recent Expansion in the Scope of Education i 

Advancement of Secondary Education since 1900 2 

The Influence of Educational Expansion upon the Popular 

Attitude towards Education 2 

Increased Demand for Education 2 

The Necessity of Education in a Democracy 3 

The Expansion of the Elementary School Curriculum ... 4 
Elementary Education Inadequate for the Needs of Democracy . 5 
Adolescence a Critical Period in the Pupil's Educational Career 5 
Changes in Society Demand a More Extensive System of Edu- 
cation 6 

Requirements of the Individual 6 

As a Citizen 6 

As a Worker 6 

As a Relatively Independent Personality 6 

World-wide Problems Now Face Modern Democracy .... 7 

The Masses Are Themselves the Rulers of To- Day .... 7 

Democratic Principles Becoming Axiomatic 8 

The Period of Compulsory Education Is Being Lengthened . . 8 

In England 8 

In the United States 9 

School Authorities Extending Their Influence over Secondary 

Education 9 

Labor and the Employment of Children 9 

The Necessity of a Comprehensive Reorganization of Secondary 

Education 10 

In the United States 10 

In England II 

Changes in School Population n 

A New Conception of Education 12 

Place of Secondary Education in a Democracy 13 

CHAPTER II 

educational administration: for whom and by whom is secondary 
education to be provided? 

Definitions of Secondary Education 14 

In the United States 14 

In England 14 

Comparative Enrollments in Secondary Education 16 

v 



vi Contents 

Differences in Practice Due to Differences in Conceptions 

of Secondary Education 16 

Universal Secondary Education . 17 

Free Secondary Education 17 

Public and Private Schools 17 

Comprehensive and Type Schools 17 

Differentiated Curriculums 17 

Vocational Education 17 

Educational Method 17 

Educational Aims and Values 17 

For Whom Secondary Education Is Provided 18 

American Attitude Toward Universal Secondary Education ... 18 

Secondary Education Equally Open to All 1 9 

English Attitude Towards Universal Secondary Education ... 19 

The Movement Toward a More Universal Type of Secondary 

Schools in England 20 

England Provides Secondary Education for the Brightest Pupils 21 

Debate in the House of Commons 22 

The United States Attempts to Educate All 23 

England Provides Secondary Education for Worthy Poor Pupils 23 

Maintenance Grants 24 

Comparisons Between English and American Practices .... 24 

The United States Favors but England Neglects the Average 

Man 24 

Certain English Writers Strongly Favor Universal Secondary 

Education 25 

Times Educational Supplement 25 

The Educational Ladder 25 

Free Secondary Education in England and the United States . 27 

In England Fees Are Charged 27 

Reasons for the English Practice 27 

Tendencies Towards Free Secondary Education 28 

Debate in the House of Commons 29 

Scholarships and Free Places 30 

Continuation Schools 31 

Workers' Education Association and Free Schools ..... 32 

Public and Private Schools 32 

Cooperation between Public and Private Schools in England . . 32 

Variety of Schools 33 

Inefficient Private Schools 34 

The American Attitude toward Private Schools 35 

Central and Local Authorities 35 

Variety and Liberty Watchwords in England 36 

Local Initiative 37 

Local Schemes 38 

Inspection 38 



Contents vii 

Function of the Central Authorities 38 

The Question of Local and Central Control in the United States . 39 

Local Needs 39 

Education is a National Concern 40 

Comprehensive Versus Type Schools 41 

In England Type Schools 41 

In the United States Comprehensive Schools 42 

Surveying Committees Favor Comprehensive Schools .... 43 

Type Schools Impossible in Small Places 44 

Articulation 45 

Entrance to Secondary School at Age of Twelve 46 

The Junior High School 46 

The English Plan 46 

Times Educational Supplement Plan 47 

Age as the Basis of Admission 47 

Admission to College by Mental Tests 48 

Conclusions 50 

CHAPTER III 

organization of the program of studies in england 
and the united states 

Democracy Demands Diversity and Unity 51 

Qualities Desirable in a Democratic Society 52 

Curriculum Organization in England ......... 53 

University Entrance Examinations 54 

Controversies among the Subjects of Study 54 

Specialization Postponed 56 

Resolutions on Curriculum Organization 57 

Vocational Specialization 58 

Debate in the House of Commons 60 

The Abolition of Sides 62 

Limitation of the Number of Subjects 63 

The Subjects of Study in England 64 

Curriculum Organization in the United States 65 

Early Manifestations of Differentiation 65 

Extremes in Curriculum Organization 66 

The Elective System 66 

Controversies Among the Subjects of Study 66 

Possible Subjects of Study 67 

Differentiation by Groups of Studies 69 

Differentiation by Groups of Pupils 70 

The Specializing Function in Secondary Education . . . . . 71 

Vocational Specialization 71 

Pupil Groups 73 

Flexibility and Rigidity '. 74 



viii Contents 

Curriculum Organization in the United States — Continued 

Educational Guidance 76 

The Unifying Function in Secondary Education 77 

Constants 78 

Variables 79 

Free Electives 79 

Minimum Essentials 79 

Unifying Studies 80 

Recent Curriculum Controversies 81 

Collectivism Versus Individualism 81 

Conclusions 82 



CHAPTER IV 

vocational education in secondary schools 

Widespread Vocational Education Expected by Some Writers . 83 

Opposing Forces in the Matter of Vocational Education . . 85 

Facts That Favor Vocational Education 86 

Smith-Hughes Act 86 

Certain Associations Favor Vocational Education 86 

Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education . . 88 

First Interpretation 88 

Second Interpretation 90 

Vocational Education to Attract Pupils to the Secondary Schools . 90 

Vocational Education and the Pupils' Best Development .... 91 

John Dewey on Vocational Education 93 

Other Progressives on Vocational Education 97 

Flexner 97 

Eliot 98 

Snedden 98 

E. C. Moore 99 

W. R. Smith 99 

Kilpatrick and Others 100 

Statistics 101 

The Real Issue in Vocational Education 102 

Shall Vocational Education Be Given at All 102 

To What Extent Should It Be Given 102 

On These Two Questions Opinion Varies 103 

Only Extreme Cases Show a Strong Vocational Tendency . . . 106 

Vocational Education Not Intended for All 107 

Possibilities of a Caste System in Secondary Education . . . . 107 

Secondary Education Should Be Both Cultural and Practical . . 109 

English and American Practices Compared in 



Contents ix 

CHAPTER V 

the basis for the selection of content in the modern 
program of studies 

Comprehension of the Modern World as an Aim 114 

Recent Controversies Harmonized 117 

West and Flexner 117 

West and H.G.Wells 118 

Social Studies Becoming Prominent 119 

In the United States 120 

Modern Studies in England 122 

Foreign Languages in the United States 124 

The Content of the Course in Science 124 

In England 124 

In the United States 126 

The Content of the Course in Manual Training 127 

In England 127 

In the United States 127 

The Content of the Course in Home Economics 128 

Classics Not Completely Socialized 128 

Certain Phases of Educational Method Demand Socialized Sub- 
ject Matter 129 

Mental Discipline 129 

Interest and Effort 132 

Comparisons 133 

CHAPTER VI 

educational method 

The Function of Educational Method in a Democratic School 

System 134 

Educational Method in an Autocracy Contrasted with Educa- 
tional Method in a Democracy 135 

Obedience to a merely External Authority 135 

Intelligent Self-direction 136 

Conflicting Purposes of Subject Matter and Method 136 

English and German Practices Compared 137 

Present Tendencies in Educational Method in England . . . 139 

Liberty 139 

Social Life 140 

Present Tendencies in the United States 140 

Changes in Outer Action and Inner Dispositions 140 

Whole-hearted Purposeful Activity 143 

Contrasted with Reverence and Obedience 143 

Living Worthily in School as a Preparation for Living Worthily 

afterwards 144 

Opposition to this Line of Argument 145 



x Contents 

Attempts to Place Educational Method on a Democratic Basis . 146 

The Project Method 146 

Purposing, Planning, Executing and Judging 147 

The Purposeful Act and Interest and Effort 149 

Interest and Effort Mutually Complementary 150 

Working with Pupils' Native Interests 152 

The Purposeful Act and Discipline 153 

Concomitant Values ■< 155 

CHAPTER VII 

the meaning of secondary education in a democracy 

A Comprehensive Theory of Secondary Education in the Making . 157 

Building a Worthy Civilization as an Aim 158 

A New Conception of Humanism 159 

Social Participation as an Aim 161 

Art for Art's Sake 163 

Growth as an Aim 166 

Activity Leading to Further Activity 167 

Secondary Neurone Connections 168 

Formal Discipline 169 

Activity Leading to Further Activity and Culture . , . . . . 171 

Meaning of Culture in a Democracy 172 

Total Social Efficiency 174 

Conclusions 175 

Bibliography 177 



A COMPARISON OF TENDENCIES IN SECONDARY 
EDUCATION IN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES 

CHAPTER I 

THE NEED OF A COMPREHENSIVE REORGANIZA- 
TION OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

The education of the adolescent is the most pressing educational 
problem of the twentieth century in all civilized countries, but 
more especially in those under democratic rule. It is the purpose 
of this investigation to enter into a consideration of the present 
tendencies and problems of secondary education; and since Eng- 
land and the United States are the world's leading democracies 
the investigation will be confined to the systems of secondary 
education in these countries. A democratic system of education 
is the demand of the present in both countries. "The problems 
of the two countries are not identical, but the hopes and aspira- 
tions for the future of democracy are the same in both." [203, 
August 1, 1918, p. 321.] x 

Recent Expansion in the Scope of Education 

The problems of elementary education to a large extent occu- 
pied the attention of educators in the nineteenth century, and 
during that century the battle for compulsory elementary educa- 
tion was fought and won. This movement progressed more 
slowly in England than in the United States, gaining headway 
there after 16.70, but by the end of the century both nations were 
committed to the policy that the welfare both of the individual 
and of society was dependent upon the retention of pupils in 
school till the age of thirteen or fourteen. While the elementary 
school was in process of development little thought was given to 
the establishment of a system of publicly supported secondary 

1 The first number in the reference notes refers to the corresponding number 
in the bibliography at the end of the investigation; the last number refers to 
the page number of the reference. 



2 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

schools. This was especially true in England. Even until 1900 
scarcely any one in England had considered secondary education 
a matter of national concern. [160, 72.] Just before this date 
the Bryce Commission had made its famous report, which showed 
an astonishing inadequacy in the provision of secondary educa- 
tion, and — in 1902 — a law was passed permitting the establish- 
ment of secondary schools at public expense. Prior to that time 
England depended altogether upon private schools, higher grade 
and higher elementary schools, for secondary education; but since 
then there has been a remarkable increase in the number of 
secondary schools in England. At that time, the supply of 
secondary education had made a greater advance in the 
United States than in England, and since then there has been an 
increase in high school enrolment of several hundred per cent. 
All of this shows a need for a more extensive provision of 
secondary education and of types better suited to the needs 
of the pupils. 

The Influence of Educational Expansion upon the Popu- 
lar Attitude towards Education 

The expansion of the scope and extent of education that has 
taken place in the last few decades has had a widespread influence 
on the popular attitude towards education of all kinds. It has 
developed a faith on the part of leaders generally in the efficacy of 
education to solve all kinds of social and economic problems. 
The political scientists, the sociologists, and the reformers resort 
to it as a prevention and cure for all kinds of social evils. There 
is a greater desire to-day for the masses to be educated than ever 
before. Social and political thinkers no longer consider it good 
policy to keep the masses ignorant, and a little of education has in 
turn created a demand for more and still more education on the 
part of the masses. This is true both of England and the United 
States. Dewey has described the American situation as follows 
[58, 14] 1 : "I sometimes think that the necessity of education is 
the only settled article in the shifting and confused social and 
moral creed of America." There certainly seems to be a clear 
and definite feeling in the United States that ignorance is the 
great enemy of mankind and education the great liberator. 

1 Compare this with a quotation from "Nature" in School and Society, Vol. 
4, p. 600. 



♦*••• 



Need of Comprehensive Reorganization 3 

England is also looking to her schools as she never did before, if 
the recent Education Act is any indication. Mr. Fisher, presi- 
dent of the Board of Education, is quoted as having said that "the 
welfare of the nation depends upon its schools" [15, 10] and the 
writer who quoted this [15, 11] states that "the aim of her educa- 
tion must be both high and wide, higher than lucre, wider than 
the nation," and adds the suggestion that "education like finance, 
should be planned on international lines by international con- 
sensus with a view to world peace." [15, 11.] The fact that dur- 
ing the recent war the school has been subjected to much criticism 
after reverses and just as highly praised after successes is an indi- 
cation of the faith in education at the present time. 

The Necessity of Education in a Democracy 

From the beginning of the United States as a nation it has been 
recognized that education is essential to the success of a democratic 
government and to meet the needs of democracy has been cited as 
the aim which should control the development of democratic 
school systems. The same point has been more and more appar- 
ent in England as democratic tendencies have developed there. 
It was thought at first that the ability to read and write univer- 
sally disseminated would go far toward satisfying, would perhaps 
be sufficient for, the needs of democracy. The recognition of the 
vastness of the problem has increased so much faster than the 
educational facilities for dealing with it that the educational situa- 
tion seems even more critical to-day than it did a hundred years 
ago. 

In the present educational situation three features seem to stand 
out prominently. These are as follows : 

1 . The elementary school has expanded to such an extent that 
it cannot be expected to attempt much more than it attempts at 
present. 

2. Elementary education is not sufficient for a high type of 
citizenship in a modern democracy. Therefore, the possibilities 
for the future lie in the education of the adolescent. 

3. In order that the secondary school may be enabled to carry 
its part of the educational burden it must undergo a comprehen- 
sive reorganization. 

These topics will be discussed in order. 



4 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

The Expansion of the Elementary School Curriculum 

During the nineteenth century the enrichment of the elemen- 
tary school curriculum was the dominant policy of the elementary 
school. At first its work was confined to primary essentials, but 
as the school year was lengthened and the number of years of 
compulsory attendance increased it began to attempt more than 
the mere essentials of reading, writing and arithmetic. The old 
subjects were expanded and new subjects added. Grammar was 
expanded through "language lessons" into composition and lit- 
erature. [149, 58.] "Object lessons" were added and became 
the forerunner of elementary science and nature study, including 
physiology and hygiene. [149, 58-59.] Geography as a "de- 
scription of the earth's surface" with its study of locations and 
boundaries, has given place to the study of geography as the 
" home of man," emphasizing the social, civic, industrial, and com- 
mercial aspects of life. History has had a similar expansion. 
Civics as a separate subject and practical arts are comparatively 
recent additions. So many subjects have been added that it is 
not uncommon for a pupil in the elementary school to have ten 
or twelve studies at the same time. [100a, editorial; also 152, 48.] 

To this extent the elementary school has grown within the last 
century both in England and the United States. From such con- 
siderations it would seem that the elementary pupil is already 
expected to carry as much work as his capacity and the time de- 
voted to elementary education as at present organized will permit. 
Even this the elementary school people do not consider sufficient for 
citizenship in a modern democracy. Consequently, they have se- 
riously proposed that the school day should be eight hours in length, 
the week six days instead of five, and the school building in use 
the year around, because they realize that the formal education of 
many pupils will come to an end with the close of the compulsory 
school period, and they wish to make the best possible use of this 
period. 

One persistent question arises out of this situation : Is the kind 
and amount of education that the elementary school is giving, or 
could give, even with this extensive reorganization, sufficient to 
meet the needs of democracy? For example, is the knowledge 
that a pupil gains from the study of the kind of elementary science 
that is given in the elementary school, from nature study, physi- 



Need of Comprehensive Reorganization 5 

ology and hygiene, as much as a citizen of a modern democracy 
needs to know that he may live a healthy life and adequately ful- 
fill his duties and obligations as a citizen? Is it as much as a free 
man should have the privilege of knowing even from the standpoint 
of appreciation and insight into modern development? Sec- 
ond, does the knowledge of geography as the home of man that an 
eighth grade pupil may normally be expected to have acquired 
give a sufficient understanding of modern industry, modern sci- 
ence, and modern complex social conditions? And third, in our 
present complicated international relationships with the emphasis 
on the significance of peoples as contrasted with governments, are 
history and civics as taught in the first eight years of school suf- 
ficient for the duties of citizenship? In other words, is the period 
of elementary education long enough for a pupil to acquire in the 
way of skills, appreciations, culture, manners and morals, all that 
a citizen of a democracy should possess? 

The answer to these questions is in the negative both in Eng- 
land and in the United States. For it is becoming more and more 
apparent that an elementary education is not enough for citizen- 
ship and a life career, that a higher type of education more uni- 
versally distributed than has ever been known before is necessary 
if democracy is to succeed. [15, ix-x and 10.] By improving 
teachers, by rationalizing methods, by eliminating useless subject 
matter here and there, by a general expansion all along the line, 
the elementary school may be made to perform more adequately 
what it now attempts, but that it will ever be able to meet all the 
needs of democracy is improbable, however well it may be re- 
organized. 

Adolescence a Critical Period in the Pupil's Educational 

Career 

For these reasons it was stated earlier that the most pressing 
educational problem of the twentieth century is the training of 
adolescents. The advancing demands of citizenship make the 
mere possession of the right to vote appear inadequate. The 
education that citizenship requires is not merely a training in 
civics but a broad and sympathetic appreciation of modern indus- 
trial, economic and social conditions, as well as a training in mor- 
als and manners, and in individual intelligence. A democracy 
cannot afford to abandon its potential citizens at a most critical 



6 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

age to such exploitation, but should keep them under supervision 
till the beginning of adulthood. 

The English attitude on this question is shown in the following 
quotation [15, 196]: "A system which compels a child to attend 
school until he is fourteen and then leaves him to his own re- 
sources can do little to create, and less to satisfy, a thirst for 
knowledge. During the most critical part of his life — fourteen to 
eighteen — he is left without guidance, without discipline, without 
ideals, often without even the desire of remembering or using the 
little he knows. He is led, as it were, to the threshold of the 
temple but the fast closed door forbids him to enter and behold 
the glories of the interior. Year by year there is an appalling 
waste of good human material : and thousands of those whom na- 
ture intended to be captains of industry are relegated in conse- 
quence of undeveloped or imperfectly trained capacity, to the 
ranks, or become hewers of wood and drawers of water. Many 
drift with other groups of human wastage to the unemployed, 
thence to the unemployable, and so to the gutter and the grave." 

Changes in Society Demand a More Extensive System of 

Education 

In addition to the reasons already given why a more extensive 
education is urgently needed in the future, certain changes in 
society during the past few decades have profoundly affected the 
activities of the individual and demand corresponding changes in 
his educational opportunities. The Commission on the Reorgani- 
zation of Secondary Education of the National Education Asso- 
ciation mentions three dominant changes in society that make 
such changes in educational opportunities imperative [42, 7]: 
"As a citizen, he must to a greater extent and in a more direct 
way cope with problems of community life, State and National 
Governments, and international relationships. As a worker, he 
must adjust himself to a more complex economic order. As a 
relatively independent personality, he has more leisure." 

The Commission expresses the opinion that "the problems 
arising from these three dominant phases of life are closely inter- 
related and call for a degree of intelligence and efficiency on the 
part of every citizen that cannot be secured through elementary 
education alone, or even through secondary education unless the 
scope of that education is broadened." [42, 7.] 



Need of Comprehensive Reorganization 7 

World-Wide Problems Now Face Modern Democracies 

Dewey, writing just before 1900, felt justified in making the 
statement that "the industrial change overshadows and controls 
all others." [57, 5 and 42, 7.] He describes the various educa- 
tional problems devolving upon the school as a result of this 
industrial change. [46, Chapter I.] Since then educators have 
been trying to adapt educational opportunities to changing condi- 
tions, but they have scarcely begun to learn how to deal with the 
many social problems due to the industrial change, to say nothing 
of those other problems of citizenship and leisure mentioned by 
the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, 
when all those other problems arising as a result of the war were 
added, so that now the political change with all its problems seems 
temporarily at least to have overshadowed all others, even the 
industrial. Great new republics and even more radical types of 
governments have been formed. Alliances among groups of 
nations and the "balance of power" have given way to a League 
of Nations. All problems have become world-wide. "World 
politics," "international relationships," "universal brotherhood 
of man," "League of Nations," "industry and commerce have 
become international," etc., are words in everybody's vocabulary 
and as was stated above (p. 3) it has been proposed that education 
should like finance become international. 

The Masses Are Themselves the Rulers of To-Day 

What is still more to the point, so far as it concerns a need for 
more education than the elementary school can give, is the fact 
that never before has the burden of solving these international 
problems rested so completely upon the shoulders of the people 
themselves. [61, 13 and 17. Also 203, January 9, 1919, p. 17; 
and 163, 7.] The masses are themselves the rulers more than 
ever before both in the United States and in England, and it is 
necessary for any nation to educate its rulers. Especially is this 
true of a democracy. In the past the tendency has been to ne- 
glect the average man, "yet it is the vote of this numerous but 
obscure type that puts governments in office and turns them out 
again. . . . Knowledge and experience of the rapidly chang- 
ing world cannot be picked up on street corners. Men must be 
specially educated to meet the new conditions." [51, 448^ So 
2 



8 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

long as the nations were governed by a few rulers, the amount of 
education given to the masses may have been considered satis- 
factory. The more favored pupils continued their education ten 
or twelve years beyond the elementary school period and hitherto 
these favored few became the leaders. The ideal of democracy is, 
however, that all citizens share in the conduct of government. 
Under present conditions a great many of these cannot remain in 
school beyond the age of fifteen or sixteen, and if this ideal is to be 
attained it is incumbent on the school to offer every inducement 
possible, even in some cases to offering financial assistance, in 
order to retain them in school as long as possible, and to extend 
its supervision wherever it can to those who have left school. For 
this purpose England has established a system of maintenance 
grants, a more extensive discussion of which will be given in a 
later chapter. 

From these statements it seems that democracy is really coming 
into its own, and its principles becoming axiomatic the world over, 
— a democracy not only of rights and privileges but also of duties 
and responsibilities. The individualism of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, an individualism that demanded rights without the corre- 
sponding responsibilities, is breaking down. [164, 227. Also 163, 
421.] When it is agreed that rights are accompanied by responsi- 
bilities, a more extensive demand than hitherto is made upon 
education, if we are to go forward and not backward. It is of 
course possible that a backward step may be taken. Things can- 
not be as they were before the war, and the lack of continued 
growth means disintegration. 

The Period of Compulsory Education Is Being Lengthened 

For the above given reasons the compulsory attendance period 
is being lengthened in various ways. In England the compulsory 
age has already been raised beyond fourteen. All pupils leaving 
the elementary school at the age of fourteen must either attend 
the continuation school for eight hours a week till the age of six- 
teen and ultimately till eighteen, or, in lieu of this, they must at- 
tend a full time school till the age of sixteen. In the United States 
there has been no law so sweeping as this, but compulsory attend- 
ance beyond the age of fourteen is not unknown in this country, 
and the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Educa- 
tion strongly recommends [42, 30] that "a sound national policy 



Need of Comprehensive Reorganization 9 

dictates the urgent need for legislation whereby all young persons, 
whether employed or not, shall be required to attend school not 
less than eight hours in each week that schools are in session 
until they reach the age of 18." At present, however, the 
United States is depending more upon public opinion and the 
adjustment of the curriculums to keep students in high school 
and in this respect, as comparative enrolments will show, it has 
been successful beyond all other nations. Society is gradually 
realizing in its own interests the importance of extending the 
period of compulsory education and of supervision over adoles- 
cents. 

There are many educators who confidently look forward to the 
time when secondary schools will be as widely established as ele- 
mentary schools are now. At the same time the necessity of 
readapting and readjusting the school to meet varied needs, abili- 
ties, and capacities of the increasing members in attendance is 
•recognized. It seems scarcely to be doubted that all that is being 
done with continuation schools; cooperative part-time of the 
Fitchburg, Massachusetts, and Cincinnatti, Ohio, plans; the 
differentiation of curriculums; all that is being done through ex- 
tension agents; and such proposals that the State establish "ves- 
tibule" and "upgrade" schools in the industrial and commercial 
concerns themselves in order that the education of the young 
workers may not cease when they leave the ordinary public school, 
[189, 751-758] — with all these movements under way, it cannot 
be doubted that we are learning more and more about the educa- 
tion of young people and that we shall eventually be justified in 
requiring compulsory schooling of some kind of all children, or at 
least oversight over them, till the age of eighteen or later. [198, 
577. Also 42, 29-31.] 

It seems, therefore, that the school authorities are gradually 
extending their influence over the secondary school period as they 
have extended it over the elementary school period. This is true 
both in England and the United States, but in England this 
tendency has developed to such a remarkable extent that all ques- 
tions of juvenile delinquency and crime are now dealt with by the 
school authorities. To deal with juvenile misdeeds is thought to 
be more the function of education than of the courts; therefore, 
"The administration of the Employment of Children Act, 1903, 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act, 1904, and the Children's 



jo Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Act, 1908, is now entrusted to the education authorities." [208, 
1918, p. 72.] 

Another indication that the extension of the compulsory at- 
tendance age maybe expected in the future is the attitude of Labor 
towards the employment of children under sixteen. A report 
from the Conference of Labor which met in Paris states: 1 "Two 
important features of the American and British Labor program 
were accepted today by the Commission on International Labor 
Legislation and will form a part of the whole project of interna- 
tional regulation which will be submitted to the full peace con- 
ference. These are the prohibition of child labor under sixteen 
years of age and the uniformity of seamans' wages." It is only 
a step beyond this to universal compulsory attendance of some 
kind till the age of sixteen. How the extension of educational 
opportunities may be made so that both individual freedom and 
social welfare may each be properly safe-guarded is an important 
question of secondary education to which democratic countries 
miist give careful attention in the future. 

The Necessity of a Comprehensive Reorganization of 
Secondary Education 

The evidence is strong that if the ideals of democracy are to be 
realized, a comprehensive reorganization of secondary education 
is imperative at the present time. Educational aims and pro- 
cedure will have to change radically to meet the new conditions 
of life that are springing up everywhere. "The present program 
of public education," says J. F. Bobbitt (17, Preface), "were 
mainly formulated during the simpler conditions of the nineteenth 
century. In detail it has improved. In fundamentals it is not 
greatly different. A program never designed for the present day 
has been inherited. Any inherited system, good for its time, 
when held to after its day, hampers social progress. It is not 
enough that the system, fundamentally unchanged in plan and 
purpose, be improved in detail. . . . To do the nineteenth 
century task better than it was then done is not necessarily to do 
the twentieth century task." 

To retain a system "fundamentally unchanged in plan and 
purpose" was exactly what the educators tended to do in the past r 



1 An Associated Press dispatch from Paris, February 19, 1919. 



Need of Comprehensive Reorganization i i 

when they proposed that some of the high school subjects be 
begun in the seventh and eighth grades. This policy has never 
worked satisfactorily, and, consequently, a comprehensive re- 
organization is now taking place in the United States in the form 
of the 6-3-3 plan. England is developing a similar though not 
an identical plan, what may be called a 6-4-2 plan. 1 

A system "fundamentally unchanged in plan and purpose" 
would likewise be retained if the secondary school program as it 
has been organized in the past, with the aims and methods that 
have prevailed, should be thrust upon all adolescents. If this 
should be done an injustice would probably be inflicted upon a 
great many of them. Some boys and girls would doubtless not 
only be happier and better contented if allowed to enter some 
kind of employment, but certain of these would in probability 
actually learn more and in every respect be better developed for 
life services. Some kind of provision could be made for such 
cases in a comprehensive reorganization, perhaps both by part- 
time schooling and by maintaining oversight over adolescents 
while in employment. 

Changes in the school population, therefore, also demand a 
reorganization of secondary education. In the United States it 
is felt that democracy demands an equal right for each child to 
receive that education which will best develop his capacities. 
The situation is aptly summed up by the Commission on the Re- 
organization of Secondary Schools. [42, 8.] It is stated that the 
growth of democracy has brought into the secondary school "a 
large number of pupils of widely varying social heredity, capaci- 
ties, aptitudes, and destinies in life. Further, the broadening 
of the scope of secondary education has brought to the school 
many pupils who do not expect to complete the full course but 
will leave at various stages of advancement. The needs of these 
pupils cannot be neglected, nor can we expect in the near future 
that all pupils will be able to complete the secondary school as 
full-time students." The kind of education hitherto offered is 
unsuited to great numbers of these people, and, consequently, 
before an extension of education with advantage to all concerned 
can take place, the whole scheme of secondary education must be 
reorganized and expanded. 

1 The last two years of the English plan, however, resembles the junior col- 
lege in the United States more than the senior high school. 



12 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

In England, it is felt that, due to their great losses during the 
war, talent must be sought and developed wherever it may be 
found. The Times Educational Supplement has repeatedly em- 
phasized the point that each child should receive an "outfit for 
life. " It should be said that "outfit for life" does not mean sim- 
ply vocational ability but ability in every sphere of life in which 
a citizen engages. It is not to be expected that the kind of edu- 
cation that was designed for conditions that existed prior to the 
war would be suitable for new conditions and a different class of 
pupils. For in England it is certain that the schools will draw 
pupils more widely than hitherto. Even during the period of the 
war the lower classes which had never been able to send their 
children to the secondary school found themselves prosperous, 
owing to increased wages, and began to send their children to the 
secondary schools in great numbers. 

The Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Educa- 
tion [42, 8-9] mentions certain changes in educational theory, 
such as the questions of individual differences in capacities and 
aptitudes, of formal discipline, the importance of applying knowl- 
edge, the continuity of the development of children, as further 
evidence of a need for a comprehensive reorganization of secon- 
dary education. A growing conception of the importance of these 
questions makes radical changes in secondary education impera- 
tive. 

A New Conception of Education 

From the preceding discussion it is obvious that we are moving 
away from the old conception of what makes up education. We 
are departing from the old ideal of culture and the humanities, 
but having broken away from the old moorings it is not certain 
whither we are headed. There seems to be no concerted opinion 
as to what the character of education is going to be. In attempt- 
ing to build a new ideal there are many conflicting opinions and 
divergent forces. There is a possibility that the ideal may be 
broader and better suited to the needs of democracy, but there is 
a danger that it may become narrowly specific and vocational, 
and hence destructive of the best interests not only of democracy 
but of a full and complete life. It is sure, however, to be broader 
in the scope of its offerings and the extent of its distribution, but 
it may not be of better quality. The old ideal, however well 



Need of Comprehensive Reorganization 13 

adapted to a few students, was not suited to the needs of many. 
Hence individual aptitudes and individual differences are now 
taken into consideration as never before. This attempt tc fit 
education to the needs of the individual pupil brings in its wake 
all those questions of differentiation, not only of types of schools, 
but also of curriculums within each school. 

One result of the war has been to raise the question as to the 
place of secondary education in a democracy. The following 
quotation seems to be an answer to which both England and the 
United States could agree. "It was education of the wrong sort 
that produced the war, it is education of the right sort that can 
prove the only permanent guarantee of a lasting peace." [142, 
March 20, 191 9.] What constitutes this right sort of education? 
In other words, what is the nature of secondary education in a 
democracy? These questions and all others to which they give 
rise must be faced if democracy is to endure. These questions 
constitute the problem of this investigation. 

There will be four main divisions of the investigation. These 
divisions are: 

A. Educational Administration, or for whom and by whom is 
secondary education to be provided? 

B. The Curriculum, or the nature of secondary education in a 
democracy. 

C. Educational Method. 

D. The Meaning of Secondary Education in a Democracy. 
The main underlying question, What should be the nature of 

education in a democracy? will continue throughout. 



CHAPTER II 

EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION: FOR WHOM AND 

BY WHOM IS SECONDARY EDUCATION TO 

BE PROVIDED? 

Definitions of Secondary Education in England and the 

United States 

It is very misleading to make comparisons between the English 
and American systems of secondary education without clearly 
defining just what the respective nations mean by the term. In 
the United States there is little confusion as to what is meant by 
the term, although there is much as to what should be the nature 
of secondary education. Secondary education in the United 
States is that period of education which follows and is superim- 
posed upon the elementary school, thus defining the field of sec- 
ondary education to a large extent according to the normal period 
of the pupil's life during which he is in school. Up to quite re- 
cently the secondary school period covered the years from four- 
teen to eighteen, but more recently, on account of the proposed 
extension of the duration of secondary education to six years, it 
may cover the period from twelve to eighteen. Anything that is 
taught in this period is considered secondary education. 

It is not so easy to determine just what is meant in England by 
secondary education, for it is defined more in accordance with the 
purpose of the school and the content of its program of studies 
than by the period during which the pupil is in school. Within 
the period from twelve to eighteen several kinds of educational 
opportunities are offered that the English do not consider a part 
of secondary education. There are, for instance, three divisions 
of elementary education that come within this period. Just as in 
America there are the last two years of the elementary school 
proper, since the elementary school continues to fourteen years of 
age. There were also in certain places until quite recently higher 
elementary schools, now replaced by central schools, designed to 
give a more advanced education than the elementary school but 
nevertheless not classed as secondary schools. These schools 
14 



Educational Administration 15 

carry their pupils up to fifteen or even sixteen, and teach such 
subjects as history, geography, English, science, mathematics, 
domestic science, a foreign language, and commercial subjects. 
With such a curriculum these schools would certainly be consid- 
ered a part of secondary education in the United States, but are 
not so considered in England. A third division consists of the 
continuation schools, provision for which has already been enacted 
into law, but which are only in the process of organization. Com- 
pulsory attendance at these schools is already required of all up 
to the age of sixteen and will eventually be required of all up to 
eighteen who do not attend an accredited school full-time up to the 
age of sixteen. The character of the work done in these schools 
up to the age of sixteen is not vocational but general. After 
sixteen, vocational preparation may become prominent, but will 
not completely dominate the work of these schools. Although 
these three types of schools constitute an important part of the 
education of adolescents, they nevertheless are not considered by 
the English as a part of secondary education. 

There are also a number of junior technical schools and junior 
commercial schools, schools in which technical, commercial, or 
general vocational work is the main feature. These are confined, 
as might be expected, to the large cities. Comparable to these is a 
certain type of rural schools for the agricultural areas. All of these 
extend from twelve to sixteen, but they are not a part of sec- 
ondary education in the English sense, because it is not considered 
"the function of the secondary schools to provide vocational and 
professional preparation." [208, June, 1918, p. 68.] 

Secondary education as conceived by the Englishman is given 
in none of these schools, but in still another type of school. 
These are the schools, first, which are commonly called the Great 
Public Schools, such as Eton, Harrow, and Rugby; second, other 
schools which have had a shorter history and are not so well 
known as the Great Public Schools but which are built upon the 
same general plan and have the same general purposes as these; 
and third, the recently established secondary schools built as a 
result of the Act of 1902 because with the growing population the 
older types of schools were not sufficient for all adolescents who 
desired a secondary education. These three types of schools are 
the kind that the Englishman has in mind when he speaks of sec- 
ondary education. They give what may be called a general 



1 6 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

liberal education. The Board of Education defines a secondary 
school as one which "offers to each of its pupils a progressive course 
of instruction ... in subjects necessary to a good general edu- 
cation, upon lines suitable for pupils of an age range as wide as from 
twelve to seventeen." [94, p. 253.] The curriculum of these 
schools, according to the Regulations of 1918, is composed of Eng- 
lish, languages other than English, history and geography, science 
and mathematics, art and manual training. A secondary school 
in the English sense is a school in which such subjects are taught. 
It is obviously very misleading, therefore, to make comparisons 
between the two systems of secondary education unless this dis- 
tinction in definitions is kept clearly in mind. As an instance of 
how misleading it may be we may take the simple question of the 
number of students enrolled in the secondary schools of the two 
countries. America boasts its million and a half high school 
students while England has scarcely two hundred thousand, a 
ratio of 8 to 1, while the ratio of population is only 5 to 2. The 
English statistics do not, however, include those in attendance at 
the special types of schools, as the junior technical, junior com- 
mercial, central, etc., the continuation schools, or those attending 
hundreds of private schools of which no statistics are available. 
It is evident that a comparison without taking these facts into 
consideration does not tell the whole story. In order that there 
may be no confusion on account of this difference in the use of 
terms, a comparison will be made between adolescent education in 
England and the United States, respectively. Adolescence will be 
defined as extending from twelve to eighteen years of age. 

Differences in Practice Due to Differences in 
Conceptions of Secondary Education 

If the American definition be accepted one must be prepared 
to accept untold variety, not to say confusion, in the readjustment 
that must follow, while if the English definition be accepted one 
may expect educational procedure more nearly to follow tradi- 
tional lines, and this is exactly the case. 

The energetic debates that have centered round the value of the classics 
and the sciences in English schools during the past four years are but a 
storm in a teacup compared with the unrest in American secondary educa- 
tion. In England the questions are confined almost wholly to the relative 
values of certain subjects; in general the conception of a liberal education 



Educational Administration 17 

remains fundamentally the same. The problems in the United States, 
however, include the reconstruction of the whole system of education, the 
revision of the meaning and purpose of liberal education and the readap- 
tation of the curriculum and methods of instruction. [203, November 14, 
1918, p. 492.] 

More specifically, the definitions of secondary education in the 
two countries foreshadow certain differences in educational prac- 
tice and in administrative policy: 

1. If the English definition be accepted, the brightest pupils will 
be carefully selected for the secondary schools, others attending 
one of the other types of schools. According to the American 
conception all pupils between the ages of twelve and eighteen will 
be encouraged to attend the "cosmopolitan high school." (See 
below, pp. 41 ff.) 

2. Also in England fees will be charged, while in the United 
States secondary education will be free. 

3. In England both public and private schools will be fostered, 
while in America public schools will predominate. 

4. If the English definition be accepted, a variety of types of 
schools will almost inevitably be the administrative policy. If 
the American definition be adopted cosmopolitan or comprehen- 
sive schools will be the rule. 

5. In the internal organization of the school there will be less 
need for differentiated curriculums in the English schools than in 
the American cosmopolitan schools. 

6. The question of vocational training in secondary schools 
may not even exist in England ; at least it will be less acute than in 
America. 

7. Whereas, if the principle of universal free secondary educa- 
tion be accepted, a recasting of the fundamental principles of 
educational method will become necessary. 

8. The whole conception of educational aims, liberal education, 
culture, and the meaning of secondary education in a democracy 
will have to be modified. 

The first four of these differences will be treated in this chapter. 
The others will be deferred to later chapters. In addition in this 
chapter, the tendency toward a national system of education will 
be taken up. It will be found that England has progressed 
much farther toward a national system than America, and has 
more nearly harmonized local with centralized control. 



1 8 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

For Whom Secondary Education Is Provided in England 
and, the United States 

The most fundamental difference between English and Ameri- 
can systems of secondary education is undoubtedly that of uni- 
versal free secondary education. This is the foundation-stone 
of the whole system of American secondary education, in its every 
phase. On nothing is there such complete accord. Despite the 
frequent charge of materialism against the educational system of 
the United States, it can safely be said that even the economic ap- 
peal is "a very bad second to the more genuinely national ideal — ■ 
to give every child, rich or poor, an equipment that will make him 
a better citizen, better able to cope with the problems that con- 
front him today." [203, October 31, 1918, p. 465.] In England, 
on the other hand, the policy of selecting the brightest to attend 
the secondary school has been the rule and continues under the 
new Act. Universal free secondary education has at least for the 
time being been shelved. 

The American Attitude Toward Universal Secondary Education. 
The attitude of the American people toward universal secondary 
education is correctly reflected in the following quotation : 

It [the secondary school] is a school for "all the children of all the people," 
— the most democratic school which can be conceived because it has a place 
for the rich and for the poor; for pupils who can be educated mainly 
through books; for those who can be educated mainly through people; for 
those who can be educated mainly through contact with things, things as 
they are apprehended in science or things as they are apprehended by con- 
structive activity with the hands; it has a place for the dull and retarded 
pupils and for the brightest and accelerant pupils; and it has a place for 
pupils who expect to continue their education in higher schools and for 
those who expect to leave school at the earliest possible moment. [82, 
380-81.] 

One of the articles of faith of the School Review, one of the most 
influential magazines on secondary education in the United 
States, is expressed as follows [193, 67]: "It is the duty of each 
state to supply secondary education to every boy and girl in the 
state," and the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary 
Education holds a similar view. "This Commission holds that 
education should be so reorganized that every normal boy and 
girl will be encouraged to remain in school to the age of 1 8, on full 
time if possible, otherwise on part time." [42, 30.] 



Educational Administration 19 

The Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Educa- 
tion does not even make the requirement of complete preparation 
for entrance to secondary schools before admission is granted. 
"We recommend," it says, "that secondary schools admit, and 
provide suitable instruction for, all pupils who are in any respect 
so mature that they would derive more benefit from the secondary 
school than from the elementary school." [42, 19.] This prob- 
ably means that in most cases pupils should be admitted to high 
school on the basis of age rather than attainments. The same 
recommendation is incorporated in the Portland Survey [48, 217- 
19] and has to an extent been practised by some American superin- 
tendents. This is, however, not yet the common practice, but it 
is almost unanimously accepted that secondary education should 
be open to all who are properly prepared. A very definite at- 
tempt is made from year to year to enroll and retain in high school 
every one who passes through the elementary school. The 
measure of success is very far from perfect, but the situation is 
improving, as is indicated by the following figures, which show 
that the secondary school population is increasing three times as 
rapidly as the total population: "The number of pupils has in- 
creased, according to federal returns, from one for every 210 of 
the total population in 1889-90^0 one for every 121 in 1899-1900; 
to one for every 89 in 1909-10, to one for every 73 of the estimated 
total population in 1 914-15. . . . About one- third of the 
pupils who enter the first year of the elementary school reach the 
four-year high school, and about one in nine is graduated," 

[4?. 8.] 

It is correct to say that the American high school is equally 
open to all but not equally accessible to all, that there is freedom 
of entrance but that not all pupils take advantage of this op- 
portunity. In some states provision is made for the transporta- 
tion of pupils who do not live near a secondary school into areas 
where there are such schools, tuition being also paid by the state 
or districts. 

The English Attitude Toward Secondary Education. There has 
been no such attempt in England to make secondary education 
universal, and unfortunately no statistics as to the enrolment of 
adolescents in the various types of schools are available. During 
the war it was estimated that no kind of formal education was 
reaching 2,000,000 youth, but prospects for a large increase m 



20 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

educational opportunities for adolescents in England is very good 
at present. During the war the working classes prospered 
and began to send their children to the secondary schools in in- 
creasing numbers. A great many secondary schools are being 
established. Manchester, for instance, has an extensive building 
program under way. As soon as the continuation schools come 
into complete operation with their broad curriculum and compul- 
sory attendance, the number of adolescents reached will probably 
surpass in actual numbers the secondary school enrolment in the 
United States. 

In England those who do not enter the secondary school either 
continue in the elementary school (there is as much as five years 
overlapping between the elementary and secondary schools) and 
after that the continuation schools, or at the age of twelve enter 
other types of schools, junior technical, junior commercial, central, 
etc. This raises the question of the extent to which class distinc- 
tions permeate the secondary school system of England. In the 
past England along with other European countries has maintained 
a system of fee-paying secondary schools for those who could af- 
ford it and alongside of it a system of free elementary schools for 
the masses. This enables those who are in good financial cir- 
cumstances to attend the secondary school while those who are 
not must attend the elementary school. This division in a large 
number of cases has extended all the way down to the beginning of 
school life, as "the sons of professional men and the aristocracy 
never or seldom attend public elementary schools but receive their 
preliminary education in private preparatory schools." [167, 
255-] 

The Movement Toward a More Universal Type of 
Secondary Schools in England 

There is a growing tendency away from this class system, for in 
the first place "there has arisen during the last fifteen years a 
large and increasing number of secondary schools which receive 
practically all their pupils from the elementary schools [43, 83]; 
and in the second place by the act of 1902 free places to the num- 
ber of 25 per cent of the previous year's enrolment and a smaller 
number of competitive open scholarships are available. In this 
way the intellectual elite of the working and lower middle classes 
gain access to the secondary schools. In the third place, the quite 



Educational Administration 21 

appreciable growth in the number of secondary schools increases 
the number of free places to elementary school pupils, and it is Mr. 
Fisher's plan to increase still further the number of free places by a 
still more extensive increase in the number of secondary schools. 
In the fourth place, there is an agitation led by the Times Educa- 
tional Supplement for one type of school up to the age of eleven for 
elementary school pupils and on top of this a compulsory second- 
ary school for all up to the age of fifteen. In the fifth place the 
establishment of a universal system of continuation schools forms 
a possible basis for the development of a universal type of free 
secondary schools of the American type. The present situation 
will be taken up first and following this possibilities for the future 
will be considered. 

England Provides Secondary Education for the Brightest 

Pupils 

In England sentiment is growing for opportunities for full-time 
secondary education for all pupils, but this is not the present 
practice and there is considerable opposition to the adoption of 
such a policy. At present the English, to be sure, do try to 
provide secondary education for the brightest pupils whether rich 
or poor who might profit by secondary education. They do this 
by means of scholarships, by providing free places, and even by 
maintenance grants in worthy cases. "In worthy cases" would 
imply, however, that there are some pupils who are not worthy 
and could not, therefore, profit by secondary education, hence, a 
selection of the brightest must be made. 

The following quotations show the attitude of certain classes of 
educational thinkers: "What needs insisting on here is that there 
must be enough of these secondary schools to receive all of what- 
ever class who have the ability to make good use of an extended 
course of education. These should be chosen out from the ele- 
mentary school." [8, 19.] 

The President of the Board of Education, Mr. Fisher, likewise 
implies a doubt whether some pupils can profit by secondary 
education. He says: "I submit we should desire a secondary 
education for all boys and girls in this country who are capable of 
profiting by it." [73, 17; cf. 198-577.] A writer in the School 
World expresses the following desire: "I should like to see the 
secondary schools purged from the curse of paying dullness and 



22 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

such an increase in the number of scholarships and maintenance 
allowances as would secure that every child of ability should have 
the best education possible." [173, June, 1916, p. 266.] 

Lord Bryce gives his opinion as follows: "The next problem is 
how to find the finest minds among the children of the country and 
bring them by adequate training to the highest efficiency. The 
sifting out of these best minds is a matter of educational organ- 
ization and machinery." [15, p. x.] In another place he says: 
" For the schools the problem is how to discover among the boys and 
girls those who have the kind of gift which makes it worth while 
to take them out of the mass and give them due facilities for pur- 
suing these studies at the higher secondary schools." [32, 556.] 

The same view was prominent while the recent bill was in com- 
mittee in the House of Commons. [203, May 9, 191 8, p. 193.] 
The following is a typical attitude: 

Mr. Whitehouse moved to omit from the opening portion of clause I 
— "With the view to the establishment of a national system of public 
secondary education available for all persons capable of profiting thereby" 
— the words "capable of profiting thereby." 

Mr. R. MacDonald suggested that the words to which exception was 
taken were open to objection because they gave a hint of vocational edu- 
cation — that was to say, that at a certain stage in an elementary school 
career some authority should decide that one boy should become a workman 
and another boy should be prepared for a university career — and of the 
regional idea of education — that was, that a boy born in a seaport 
should go to sea, and that a boy born in a rural district should become an 
agricultural worker. 

Sir Philip Magnus contended that the honorable member read into 
the words which it was proposed to omit a meaning which neither the 
President of the Board of Education nor any other member of the House 
contemplated. The words were of importance as explaining the real pur- 
pose of the Bill. It seemed useless to give education to persons who were 
incapable of profiting thereby. 

The mere fact that the words "capable of profiting thereby" are 
used predetermines the policy of selection. An American observer 
would be inclined to sympathize with the position taken by Mr. 
MacDonald, for it seems that there is a danger of dividing society 
into intellectual classes, if the policy of selection be adhered to, 
and it is the American wish to reduce this possibility to a minimum. 
It should be remembered, however, that the debaters are here 
using secondary education in the English sense defined at the be- 



Educational Administration 23 

ginning of this chapter. This point of view is not so dissimilar 
from the American as it at first seems, for in the United States it is 
realized that all pupils cannot profit by the traditional type of 
secondary education. 

There is a difference between the two countries, however. In 
the statement, " It seemed useless to give education to persons who 
were incapable of profiting thereby," as reasonable as it appears, 
seems to carry with it a grave possibility of shifting the responsi- 
bility from the school to the child. At least there seems to be an 
attitude of "take it or leave it," a policy which the best American 
educators have discarded as undemocratic. It does not make 
sufficient provision for individual differences. It seems to take 
for granted that the secondary school is not to be adapted to the 
pupil but the pupil to the school, and if anyone cannot profit by 
the kind of instruction given he should go elsewhere, or drop out. 
Of course it should be said that American practice has not yet 
reached this ideal. 

The United States Attempts to Educate All 

The American attitude is quite different. Here there is free- 
dom of entrance and an attempt to provide intellectual equipment 
for any who wish to enter. The responsibility is put squarely 
upon the school. The assumption is made that any normal child 
may be improved by a suitable kind of education, and this holds 
true for all children who are not positively feebleminded. If the 
pupil does not improve by the kind of instruction the high school 
is giving, then, so the typical American educator would say, the 
child should not be driven away on that account. The school 
must learn to educate that child or admit failure to that extent. 
The burden of proof is put on the school, not on the child. 

England Provides Secondary Education for Worthy 
Poor Pupils 

It seems, therefore, that England still lags behind in providing 
opportunities for all, yet it is probable that she surpasses the 
United States in her provision for the education of poor children. 
For a part of clause 4 of the Fisher Act in regard to local schemes 
reads as follows: "In schemes under this Act adequate provision 
should be made in order to secure that children and young persons 
shall not be debarred from receiving benefits of education through 
3 



24 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

inability to pay fees." [203, June 6, 1918, p. 229.] Thus by law 
poverty does not deprive a pupil of secondary education. It is, 
therefore, probable that England has a system in which any ambi- 
tious child, however poor, may push his way to the top. However, 
England gives opportunities only for those who may profit by 
secondary education. In America, on theother hand, by publicity, 
by encouragement, and by a very rich offering of courses, an at- 
tempt is made to attract every child possible but nowhere are 
maintenance grants offered for the very poor. Consequently, a 
number who really might profit by secondary education in the 
United States cannot do so on account of poverty, or must work 
their way through school under a great handicap. 

In one respect, therefore, the American system is more demo- 
cratic than the English. In the United States entrance to the 
secondary schools is free to all adolescents adequately prepared, 
and tuition is free to all who enter. In England, on the other 
hand, entrance is possible only to those who secure free places, or 
scholarships, or are willing to pay fees. In one respect, on the 
other hand, England is more democratic than the United States, 
for the poor are given maintenance grants while in America they 
are given no assistance; but the spirit and custom of working one's 
way through is a commendable feature of American education 
while the fear of being considered objects of charity has been 
known to drive pupils away. 

An important test of a free secondary school system is, of course, 
the length of school life and the extent to which advantage is 
taken of the opportunities offered. Elimination for one cause or 
another has been very great in the United States. It is, therefore, 
"at least an open question whether an extended system of scholar- 
ships and free places with maintenance allowances is not more 
genuinely in the interest of society than the free school — provided, 
of course, that the system is so administered that the boy or girl 
who matures late is not cut off from adequate opportunities." 
[203, November 14, 1918, p. 492.] 

The United States Favors But England Neglects 
the Average Man 

This discussion leads to another fundamental difference between 
the English and American systems of secondary education. The 
English concentrate their efforts "far too much on high academic 



Educational Administration 25 

distinction for the few and neglect the average man." [51, 447.] l 
In the United States it has been frequently said that the bright 
pupil is neglected, that compared with what he might have ac- 
complished he is the most retarded pupil in school. The average 
and mediocre talent is said to receive most emphasis in America. 
Compare, for instance, the English idea of selecting the brightest 
pupils to go on to the secondary school with the opinion of the 
Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education, 
which insists that every child shall go to the secondary school 
when he is old enough regardless of the grade he has reached in the 
elementary school. 

Certain English Writers Strongly Favor Universal 
Secondary Education 

In considering the possibilities for the future in England there 
seems to be a strong sentiment away from the present system. 
Early in the war the Times Educational Supplement and others 
repudiated the doctrine of the ladder of Huxley by which it was 
expected that a child of ability could ascend from the lowest to 
the highest station in life. They boldly advocated a "liberal 
education for all." [203, October 26, 1916, 185.] They repudiated 
this doctrine because there was implicit in it the idea of classes. 
The brightest could be expected to get to the top, while the dull 
would remain near the bottom with varying degrees of individual 
advancement between. This is, of course, the same as providing 
for the bright and neglecting the dull as described above. When 
it was realized during the war that England was losing a great 
many of her best minds on the battlefields some of the English 
educators began to cast around for another metaphor to fit the 
new needs. They realized that not a single child should be wasted. 
Talent should be developed wherever it could be found, and not 
only talent but " all those who show promise." [8,19.] To remedy 
the matter "broad staircase" was first offered, but this did not 
satisfy, "for staircase, too, though suggesting something less nar- 
row and less difficult of ascent than a ladder, is an unfortunate 
metaphor implying as it does escape from a lower class to a height 
from which the climber can look down on his old associates as 
doing a lower kind of work — let us change the metaphor, and de- 
mand a broad highroad of education open to all who have the 
^ee also 203, September 26, 1918, p. 411; and 167, 256. 



26 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

brains to profit by following it, rather than, as at present, to few 
who have the means to pay the cost." [8, 20.] 

This still does not get away from the policy of selecting those 
who can profit by an existing system of secondary education, thus 
fitting the child to the system rather than fitting the system to the 
child. Another writer, however, states that the ideal should be to 
carry "the whole mass of the people forward even though it be but 
a little way." [197, 511.] 

This attitude is somewhat less conservative than the one pre- 
viously referred to, but it is still not so radical as the opinions of 
the Times Educational Supplement: "In these columns (for three 
years) we have expressed the view that secondary education for 
all is the goal to aim at. When this view was enunciated in these 
pages, it was met first with derision, then with doubt, and then 
almost suddenly accepted, with the example of America striking 
the imagination of our rather cautious thinkers as an article of 
faith. . . . It is time to be done with educational shams and 
injustices which offer to one child an 'elementary education,' to- 
another with perhaps less native ability ' secondary education. ' ' 
[203, January 9, 1919.] 

Still later the Times Educational Supplement says: "For our 
own part we have no sympathy with the imposition of the old 
system of elementary education on a new world, and we hope that 
some local authority will have the courage to break definitely with 
the past and offer preparatory education up to eleven years, and 
then secondary education for all up to the new age limit. . . . 
If we read the signs of the times aright this will not be tolerated 
much longer, and the Board will come to revise ... its de- 
termination to preserve a separate and incomprehensible system of 
finance." [203, March 20, 1919, p. 139.] 

This theory has not yet been put into practice, as we have seen, 
and it is probable that the Times Educational Supplement is some- 
what optimistic in its expectation of an immediate change to a 
new system, but there are indications that England is working in 
this direction. Mr. Fisher is sympathetic with the policy but 
seems to think it impossible at present, and the Act of 1918 has- 
at least postponed the establishment of a system of universal, 
secondary schools. 



Educational Administration 27 

Free Secondary Education in England and the 
United States 

Inextricably linked up with universal opportunities for second- 
ary education is the question of free secondary education. In 
England there has been a custom ever since the Renaissance of 
charging fees for secondary education [203, July 25, 191 8, p. 
315] and even free public elementary schools did not become ac- 
cessible to all until 1891. [Ibid., p. 315.] Fee-paying elementary 
schools did not disappear, however, with the establishment of free 
elementary schools. The Times Educational Supplement esti- 
mates [Ibid., p. 315] that there are 180,000 children in attendance 
at fee-paying elementary schools to-day. 

Some English parents seem to have an aversion to free schools. 
This may be due in part to an old prejudice which has held over 
from the time when free schools were considered charity schools, 
or in part to personal, social, and denominational reasons. 
Happily the denominational question is not giving so much 
trouble as formerly, but educational observers have noticed the 
lack of the democratic spirit in the English schools observable in 
the common schools of the United States. Thus Sandiford states: 
"The son of a parent in the upper middle classes is never by any 
chance found sitting cheek by jowl with the laborer's son on the 
benches of the public elementary school." [168, 202.] 

This seems to an American observer the result of pure snobbish- 
ness, but a writer in the Times Educational Supplement asserts 
that fee-paying schools are not the outcome of snobbishness as 
commonly supposed, but "rather the last vestige of parental 
choice and control in the national schools." He states that "a 
national system of education levels up but it also levels down. It 
does not and will not for many years do for all children as much as 
every wise parent wishes to do for his own. It kills all other schools 
of similar type, and, as it can itself supply not what is best but 
only what is for the moment politically possible, it prevents many 
parents from giving their children as good an education as they 
desire. The true policy is to retain and encourage fees while in- 
sisting that they shall be used, not to relieve the taxpayer but to 
improve education. . . . Why should parents who are willing 
to pay for classes of 35 or 40 be compelled to send their children 
to classes of 50 or 60 and thus sacrifice at least 30 per cent of the 
possible result?" [203, August 1, 1918, p. 328.] 



28 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

The American educator would not accept the statement that 
public schools are less efficient than the private schools. While 
he would not state that the free public school always supplies 
what is best, he would assert that the public school does supply 
what is as good as any other type of school affords and usually 
better. 

The Times Educational Supplement gives another reason why 
the English parent shows a greater willingness to pay fees for the 
education of his children than the American parent. "From the 
earliest times," it says, "it was regarded as a parental duty to con- 
tribute to the maintenance of the teacher and his school. This 
sense of personal responsibility for local education became implicit 
in the race. ... So deeply was the idea ingrained that, 
when education became compulsory, the idea of free education 
was never entertained, and quite poor parents paid fees as a mat- 
ter of course." [Ibid., p. 315.] 

The excuse for the perpetuation of fee-paying schools is that 
they are an excellent alternative to inferior private schools, "and 
there are still a number of parents who are not only willing but 
anxious, on personal, social, and denominational grounds, to use 
schools that are not entirely rate-supported. . . . They are a 
bulwark against private schools of the baser sort." [Ibid., p. 315.] 

The Times Educational Supplement cites the United States as 
an instance of the failure of free education to develop the school- 
going habit: "In the United States of America it was assumed 
years ago that it was impossible to introduce compulsion in edu- 
cation until the schools are made free. So the reverse process to 
that followed here was adopted, and with the worst possible re- 
sults, as the history of the Chicago elementary schools shows. 
From 181 8 a stern battle was fought in the State of Illinois for 
free schools, and the goal was achieved in 1855. The free schools 
did not fill and the school-going habit was never acquired as it was 
acquired under the fee system in England. After another long 
struggle compulsory education was introduced in 1883, but the 
Act was unenforceable, and attendance is still most unsatisfactory. 
The school-going habit, as a part of the social outlook of the 
poorer people, has never been acquired in the United States." 
[Ibid., p. 315.] 

There are many evidences, however, to show that the English 
are moving toward American, free, differentiated, democratic 



Educational Administration 29 

secondary education, open to all. The Times Educational 
Supplement, in the editorial quoted above, states that the "broad 
tendency of our time is certainly towards free education for all, 
but society is not ready for the abolition of all doors." It sup- 
ports this statement as follows: "The action of the Sheffield 
Authorities in providing a system of free secondary education is a 
sign of the times. It is clear that we are rapidly reverting to the 
medieval conception of education as a spiritual thing which must 
be as freely provided as the religious needs of the spirit." [203, 
February 21, 1919.] 

Perhaps the British attitude cannot be given better than by a 
quotation from the proceedings of Parliament while the Fisher 
Bill was in Committee [203, May 9, 1918, pp. 193-94]: 

Mr. King moved an amendment directing the county council, or the 
borough council, as the local education authority, to provide in its scheme, 
"Secondary or higher education in free publicly-controlled and publicly- 
managed schools available for all persons desirous of such education." 

Mr. Whitehouse supported the amendment. 

Mr. Fisher said that, in common with all educationalists, he sym- 
pathized with the ideal put forward in the amendment, and he reminded 
the Committee that at present no fewer than 67 per cent of the children in 
State-aided secondary schools had received free education in the free ele- 
mentary schools. As a practical question, he doubted whether the best 
way of putting the object in view would be to insist on abolishing all fees 
taken in secondary schools forthwith, which would mean a loss of revenue 
to the State of 1,000,000 pounds, and suggested that the better way would 
be to encourage local education authorities to provide more secondary 
schools, and as a natural consequence to provide free places in those 
schools, with a view to impressing on local education authorities their 
responsibility in this matter. He was prepared to insert a new sub-clause 
in Clause 4, to the effect that a local education authority in preparing 
schemes shall as far as practicable provide means whereby children and 
young persons shall not be debarred by poverty from the benefits of 
higher education. He thought that would meet the point. 

Mr. King said that it did not meet the point at all. He wanted the 
parent, the rate-payer, to have the right of demanding secondary school 
training. 

Major F. Wood said, Was it not the fact now, that the rate-payer or 
parents, if they were very keen upon secondary education, would bring pres- 
sure to bear upon their elected representatives in order to get secondary 
education? The fact was — and they might as well be frank about it — 
whatever might be their ideals there was no public demand for universal 



30 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

secondary education, and those who brought forward the present amend- 
ment did not represent the normal average lay opinion outside the House. 

Mr. Goldstone said the W. E. A. (Workers' Education Association) 
was in favour of something much more advanced than was contained in the 
Bill. That body had passed a resolution demanding that the Bill be 
amended so as to make secondary education freely accessible without 
payment of fees to all capable of taking advantage of it. 

Colonel Wedgwood said that he was for a decent, true education, and 
therefore welcomed the amendment. Opportunities for secondary edu- 
cation would do more for uplifting the people than compulsory attendance 
at continuation classes or vocational education. 

Mr. Whitehouse said that the desire of the supporters of the amend- 
ment was to have as a part of the national system free secondary educa- 
tion for all children who pass through the elementary schools. 

Mr. McKenna thought that the amendment supporters were pressing 
the President of the Board of Education a little unduly. Did honourable 
members suggest that the 92 per cent of children who they said had not 
gone to secondary schools would have gone to such schools if there had 
been room for them? A very large proportion of parents had no idea 
desire to send their children to secondary schools, but even if all the children 
in the country were desirous of secondary education there would not at 
present be a sufficient supply of teachers and of school buildings. 

Mr. Fisher, after further discussion, said he would give an undertaking 
to propose to insert words which would constitute a specific direction for 
local education authorities that in making provision for secondary edu- 
cation they should pay attention to making the education acceptable to 
children desirous of obtaining it however desirous they might be of obtain- 
ing it. 

The Committee divided, and the numbers were: 

For the amendment 55 

Against 172 

Majority 117 

There has been a notable increase since 1900 in the number of 
free places and scholarships available for secondary school pupils. 
At that time the number of scholarships held by former pupils, 
both boys and girls, of the public elementary schools was only 
between 5000 and 5500 for all England. [133,132.] Hence it can 
be seen that the opportunities at that time "for any popular 
secondary education were relatively negligible." [133, 132.] 
Since that time, however, and especially since the war began a 
remarkable advance has been made. When Mr. Fisher laid 



Educational Administration 31 

his "Educational Estimates" before the House of Commons in 
1917 he stated that at that time "about 34 per cent of all pupils in 
the secondary schools are ex-public elementary school scholars 
holding free places, another two per cent held scholarships." 

Mr. Fisher further states: "It has been suggested to me that 
secondary education should be free, and the establishment of a 
system of free secondary education is an ideal with which I have 
great sympathy. It may be that the simplest way of attaining 
this object would be to abolish all fees in secondary schools . . . 
but this would raise highly controversial questions." This is 
where the question was left. 

Continuation Schools May Develop into a System of Universal 
Free Schools. What is the possibility that universal free second- 
ary education may grow out of the continuation schools? Eight 
hours a week for four years of the kind of education that the 
English contemplate giving in the continuation schools seems to 
an American observer very much like a type of secondary educa- 
tion based on modern studies. Attendance at these schools is 
free. The next logical step would be to provide full-time educa- 
tion of similar type for those who can avail themselves of the 
opportunity. 

As soon as the continuation schools have come into their full 
power, it is unreasonable to believe that there will not be a gradu- 
ally increasing number of pupils who will desire more than eight 
hours of this kind of training, but who are not able or willing to 
pay the fees for the secondary school, and are not successful in 
securing scholarships and free places. It is inconceivable that the 
English educators will not attempt to supply this demand when 
it is felt, and this will be a step toward the American system of 
free secondary education for all. By the plan of some cities it was 
already possible for the pupils of evening continuation schools to 
get right up to the universities. [167, 252.] The following quota- 
tion from Mr. Herbert Lewis, Parliamentary Secretary to the 
Board of Education while the Bill was in Committee, sounds very 
much like the educational philosophy which is the basis of Ameri- 
can free secondary education. "It is true," he says, "that some 
boys and girls are no good at books; but these will be educated 
not only through their heads, but through their hands and eyes 
by means of manual training. In the opinion of the Board of 
Education there is no class of boys so dull that they cannot profit 



32 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

by the instruction they will receive at the continuation schools." 
[203, June 6, 1918, p. 230.] 

The Workers 1 Education Association Favors Free Secondary 
Education. As further evidence that the continuation schools 
may develop into full-time free secondary education, the following 
is a resolution from the Workers' Education Association. [219, 
344.] "That compulsory part-time education of not less than 20 
hours per week (including time spent in organized games and 
school meals) be provided free for all such young persons as are not 
receiving full-time education." If such a policy should be 
adopted England would be far on the road toward universal free 
secondary education of the American type. 

The Times Educational Supplement seems to think that the 
continuation schools are destined to develop into some kind of 
universal free school system: "There will be no achievement of 
great reforms in education, no real reconstruction of national life, 
unless the day continuation schools evolve into a real system of 
intermediate education, the inevitable development for all 
children and young persons of an adequate preparatory educa- 
tion." [203, January 9, 1919.] 

Public and Private Schools 

Up to 1902, contrary to the practice in America, by far the 
stronger part of the English system of secondary education was 
built upon private enterprise, the numerous endowed and private 
schools completely dominating the educational field. [94,, 250.] 
Many municipalities throughout the country had established by 
the law of 1870 public "board schools" for elementary pupils 
under the control of local authorities, but the central government 
had attempted nothing, at least almost nothing, before 1902. 
A national system of secondary education in England really began 
with the agitation which led up to the Act of 1902. Since then 
the growth in publicly supported secondary education has been 
truly remarkable, but even yet the State does not attempt to 
cover the whole educational area. It has looked for support 
from private schools and in turn has been willing to cooperate with 
them even to the extent of making grants to those that are 
efficient. 

This policy of cooperating with private schools is due to an 
inherent English characteristic of preferring private enterprise 



Educational Administration 33 

to state action. Consequently, one does not find a publicly sup- 
ported and publicly controlled school alongside a private school 
competing with it for students as is found in the United States. 
The policy of the Board of Education is to place no State school 
in a community where an efficient private school is already in 
existence. Mr. Fisher has explained his position as in favor of 
the utilization of whatever efficient private schools may already 
exist. Such efficient schools will not, therefore, be deliberately 
abandoned. [203, March, 1919, p. 85.] 

England favors a variety of schools [203, July 11, 1918, p. 293; 
and 167, 187], and has public schools and private schools; grant- 
earning and non-grant-earning schools; technical and commercial 
schools; and the regular secondary schools. There are, thus, two 
kinds of varieties of schools which must not be confused: (1) 
Variety of administrative systems; (2) variety of types of schools 
within a system. Under the first head would come public and 
private schools, while under the second would come compre- 
hensive and type schools. The first of these will be discussed 
in this section, while the latter will be taken up in a later 
section. 

On the question of public and private schools the United States 
emphasizes public schools, while England fosters public and private 
schools. In the middle of the last century John Stuart Mill cau- 
tioned his countrymen against a uniform system of schools. He 
was thinking more particularly about the possibility of a state 
system of schools monopolizing the educational field, a step which 
he thought undesirable. A public system of schools should be 
only one of many. He said : " A general state system of education 
is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be like one another, 
and as the mould in which it casts them is that which pleases the 
predominant power in the government, whether this be a mon- 
archy, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or the majority of the existing 
generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it estab- 
lishes a despotism over the mind, leading by natural tendency 
to one over the body." [132, 205.] 

This ideal of variety was later urged by the Bryce Commission 
on Secondary Education just before the close of the last century. 
This Commission reported strongly in favor of maintaining a 
variety of secondary schools. [203, June 6, 1918, p. 230.] Variety 
both in types of schools and administrative systems was prob- 



34 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

ably meant. Sir Michael Sadler has later still expressed the 
English ideal as "variety set in a national framework." 

All the evidence seems to point to a continuance of this policy. 
While the recent Education Bill was in Committee it was evident 
that the old ideal of variety was still strong. Sir H. Craig thought 
"it better to have a public system with two or three grades of 
schools than only one narrow type." [203, July 4, 1918, p. 278.] 
Such discussions in Committee caused several sharp encounters 
and care had to be taken to safeguard the policy of a variety of 
schools, for it was feared that it was the intention of the Board of 
Education to set up a purely state system of schools and thereby 
compel the private schools to close their doors. This question 
was one of the chief obstacles that had to be overcome in the pas- 
sage of the Bill. It was, however, made plain by the friends of the 
Bill that such was not their intention, but to improve education 
everywhere, and if the hundreds of private schools that were mere 
shams were brought to book it would be beneficial to efficient 
schools of every type. England thereby encourages efficient 
schools of every kind, but discourages those that are inefficient of 
whatever type. 

The difficulty in England was for a long time that there were 
hundreds of private schools that were inefficient. The new legis-' 
lation will, it is thought, drive out of business many of the ineffi- 
cient ones and force up the standard of the others. Mr. Fisher 
has admitted that the weaker private schools will in the future 
find it difficult to compete against the state system. He is re- 
ported to have said that the "changes which had been accom- 
plished since he came to the Board of Education two years ago 
had tended to increase the weight and power of the public as op- 
posed to the private system of education in the country. More 
money had gone to the teachers, both in the way of salary and of 
pension, larger grants had been procured for secondary and ele- 
mentary schools, and it had consequently been made more diffi- 
cult for weaker schools, standing outside the State system and 
depending on voluntary contributions to compete with the schools 
aided out of public money." [203, March, 1919, p. 85.] 

Since the teachers in the State supervised secondary schools, 
according to the new salary schedule, are to receive larger remu- 
neration in the future than hitherto, and in addition a pension when 
they retire, and since teachers, if they are not teaching in an efn- 



Educational Administration 35 

cient school, cannot get their names on the Teachers Register 
which certifies them as efficient teachers, the best teachers are al- 
most sure to be called into the State supervised schools. This will 
probably cause many private schools to go out of business. Con- 
sequently, it may be expected in the future that the State super- 
vised schools will gradually forge ahead of the private schools. 

The American Attitude toward Private Schools. In the United 
States private schools exist by toleration. Rarely, if ever, does 
the State give financial assistance to private schools. Public 
opinion is probably crystallized in the following statement from 
the Smith-Towner Bill. It says: "No such sum shall be used by 
any State, county, district, or local authority, directly or in- 
directly, for the support of any religious or privately endowed, 
owned, or conducted school or college, but only for schools en- 
tirely owned and controlled, and conducted by the State, or 
county, or district, or local authority, as may be provided for 
under the laws of said State." [172, Vol. 8, 269.] 

In the United States an increasing attempt is being made to 
make free public secondary education accessible to all. Private 
schools almost always charge fees, and for this reason they have 
been relatively declining and there is no reason to think that their 
prospects are bright for the future. In England free secondary 
education has not become the rule even in the State schools. 
There both public and private schools charge fees and hence there 
is greater ease of cooperation and less likelihood that one may 
drive the other out of business ; but it seems that public secondary 
schools are gaining the ascendency in both countries. 

Central and Local Authorities 

An important problem of educational administration is to 
harmonize centralized with local control. Where the system is 
highly centralized there is danger that a bureaucracy will develop, 
and bureaucratic control is hostile to the progress of democracy. 
Where local government is dominant there is lack of efficiency in 
administration and organization. The disastrous results of local 
control were seen both in America and England during the war. At 
least it was evident that the local authoritities had not developed 
education to an extent compatible with public safety. In both 
countries it was learned that many men of draft age could neither 
read nor write, and a still larger per cent were physically unfit- 



36 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Such a state of affairs is disastrous to the welfare of a nation and 
the question was raised as to whether the central government 
should not do more for education than in the past. Conse- 
quently, in both countries even while the war was still going on 
legislation was introduced to remedy these matters. England 
passed the Education Act of 191 8 (the Fisher Bill) which tends 
strongly toward a national system of education but at the same 
time carefully safeguards the rights and privileges of local author- 
ities. The United States passed the Smith-Hughes Act for Vo- 
cational Education which may be regarded as the beginning of a 
national system of education, and there is now a bill pending in 
Congress (the Smith-Towner Bill) which, if passed, will be a still 
further advance in that direction. 

Variety and Liberty Are Educational Watchwords in England. 
"Variety" and "liberty" are the two words that more ade- 
quately characterize the educational ideals of England than any 
others. The whole administrative machinery is so organized as 
to preserve these ideals, and any legislation which attempts to 
control them unduly is headed for the shoals. The first draft of 
the Act of 191 8 had to be withdrawn because it was suspected as 
an attempt to control the local authorities. The final draft 
carefully safeguards this point. 

The English are just as desirous that schools of the same type 
in different educational areas shall show originality as was seen 
to be the case in their desire for a variety of administrative sys- 
tems, of both public and private schools. "England seems to 
fear one thing, namely that the teaching shall present a deadly 
uniformity throughout the country and be unrelieved by the 
faintest spark of originality." [167,187.] The central authority 
encourages experimentation and the development of new schemes 
in various places. "The only uniformity of practice that the 
Board of Education desire to see in the teaching of the public 
elementary schools is that each teacher shall think for himself, 
and work out for himself, such methods of teaching as may use 
his powers to the best advantage and be best suited to the particu- 
lar needs and conditions of the school. Uniformity of details in 
practice (excepting the mere routine of school management) is 
not desirable even if it were attainable. But freedom implies a 
corresponding responsibility in its use." [108, 9.] 

The result of the attempt to attain uniformity wherever it has 



Educational Administration 37 

been tried is to kill local initiative. This the English feel must be 
prevented at all costs. Democracy demands that local com- 
munities be stimulated to do their own thinking. Educational 
progress cannot be imposed from without. No education can 
succeed that is not adapted to individual and local needs; hence 
the autonomy of the local authority was preserved in the recent 
Education Act, and the psychological effect of having the people 
do their own thinking was not lost. The chief danger of cen- 
tralization is that the central authority may dictate to the local 
authority, which in turn dictates to the teacher, who dictates to 
the child. Centralization is bound to affect the relation of the 
teacher and child, which is the one important relation. 

England recognizes all these things and the relation between 
central and local authorities is intended to keep these conflict- 
ing tendencies harmonized. The quotation from Kandel above 
refers to public elementary schools, but it is equally applicable to 
secondary schools. While the recent Education Act was in Com- 
mittee an amendment was offered to the effect that the Board of 
Education should draft a model scheme for the assistance of the 
local authorities in making out their schemes. Mr. Fisher re- 
fused to accept the amendment. The Board, he explained, was 
ready to give advice and assistance to the various local authorities 
separately, but the needs of the various areas were so diverse that 
however well it might suit one area it might not be at all suitable 
for another. A model scheme in such" case might be accepted 
prematurely and hence relieve the local authority from thinking 
out its own local problem. 1 

Relations of Central and Local Authorities in England. This is 
the extent to which the idea of local initiative and liberty has been 
carried in England. The direct relations of the central authority 
to the local authorities may be divided into three parts. (1) 
Each local authority in order to receive a grant must submit a 
scheme of all the proposed educational work in its area to the 
Board for approval. (2) In making such schemes the Board does 
nothing except offer suggestions of various sorts. It must, how- 



1 Since then, however, the Board has issued a comprehensive list of suggestions 
for making schemes. These suggestions were formulated not by the Board 
alone but by the Board "with the assistance of a committee, which included 
representatives of local education authorities of all types." [203, March 20, 
1919, p. 133.] These suggestions were intended only as an aid to a local author- 
ity in determining the needs of its educational area. 



38 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

ever, consider whatever schemes are submitted and approve or 
reject them. In case of rejection after a conference the local 
authority may appeal to Parliament. The function of the Board 
is to "educate for education " and it does not have any compelling 
power except the withholding of grants. The central authority 
attempts only to stimulate and coordinate. (3) The Board has 
the right to inspect any school that receives a grant, as no school 
may receive a grant that is not efficient. (4) If a scheme of a 
local authority is approved and the schools are declared to be 
efficient, then the Board agrees to pay the appropriate grant. 

It is felt that the "main function of a Ministry or Board of 
Education should be the coordination of effort of every kind." 
[203, October 24, 191 8, p. 453.] In addition to submitting 
schemes the local authority should carry out the broad principles 
laid down by the Board and "provide the machinery for various 
forms of education, to receive and disburse the government grants 
for schools and to levy local taxes to make up the excess costs 
of education over the grants received from the Government." 
[168, 25.] 

Inglis calls attention to the fact that the Board of Education 
has "adopted a scheme of granting national funds to local schools 
as a means of bringing the secondary schools under its supervision 
and to some extent under its control" and "acceptance of aid 
from the Board of Education and submission to its supervision" 
constitutes a situation in England at the present day somewhat 
analogous to the situation in the United States in the middle of 
the nineteenth century when the public high school was in the 
midst of its struggle for supremacy with the private academy." 
[94, 251-52.] 

Local Authorities also Allocate Authority to Still Smaller Authori- 
ties. So certain are the English that education cannot be ad- 
ministered from the central authority that provision is made for 
the smaller areas to split up and allocate authority to still smaller 
areas. Kent County found itself so large that it is proposed to 
establish educational areas, and the same function be assumed by 
the County authority in relation to them as the Board of Educa- 
tion exercises for the nation, that is, coordinate and stimulate. 
[203, August 1, 1918, p. 331.] Sandiford [168, 25] thought even 
before the recent Act that "in the English schemes are potentiali- 
ties greater than those of any other country in the world." It 



Educational Administration 39 

seems that relation between central and local authorities has been 
more nearly perfected in England than in any other country. 

America Has Not Harmonized Local and Central Control. No 
plans for the harmonization of the local and central authorities 
have been made in the United States. There are as many sys- 
tems as there are states in this country. The only experiments 
thus far made are the Morrill Grant of 1862, the Smith-Hughes 
Act of 1 91 6 and the Smith-Towner Bill. There are some educa- 
tionists in the United States who think that these Acts show a 
tendency toward undue authority on the part of the central gov- 
ernment, that they dictate unduly to local authorities. 

American education has tended to educate a pupil only for the 
locality in which he lives. Individualism has been developed but 
not individualism in a national framework as in England. Edu- 
cation has not been universal as 700,000 men of draft age could 
not read and write English at the outbreak of the war. That it 
has not been efficient is evident from this same fact. Local 
needs have been cited as the basis for the organization of schools. 
When the point is pressed, however, there has been no consensus 
of opinion as to what are local needs. The interpretation of local 
needs has frequently been entirely too narrow. The following is 
a typical American statement: "It is perfectly natural that in- 
dustrial and commercial subjects should be emphasized in the 
Haywood and Bancroft schools (situated in industrial districts) 
while in the McKinley school (situated in the old high school 
building) these curriculums should be paralleled by a liberal arts 
curriculum. ... A wise superintendent and board will adapt 
the junior high school as far as possible to local conditions." [141 , 
265.] _ 

This seems to be a rather narrow interpretation of local needs. 
High praise has frequently been given to certain attempts to or- 
ganize schools to meet local needs. Yet when we examine the 
work done in such schools, the ultimate needs of the pupils seem 
barely to be touched, however well the immediate needs may 
have been met. An understanding of the meaning and duties 
of citizenship as broad and as sympathetic as any other com- 
munity enjoys are the ultimate needs of any community. The 
immediate needs may only call for a vocational and professional 
career. From the national standpoint the ultimate individual and 
social needs of one community are the same as those of another. 



40 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

From the standpoint of method it may be perfectly justifiable 
to begin such a school on this basis. One must start where the 
community and the pupils are. From the known to the unknown, 
from the immediate to the remote, are fundamental laws in 
method. Perhaps the best way to deal with a backward com- 
munity, or a backward race, (witness Tuskegee, for instance) 
and get it started on the upward climb, is to appeal to its imme- 
diate needs ; but to continue the school on that policy is often to go 
contrary to the fundamental doctrine of ever increasing growth 
as explained by some of our present day educational philosophers. 
What was at first a means to an end becomes an end within itself. 
If one's philosophy of education is founded on the former basis it 
is too shortsighted and narrow. Only when the immediate and 
the ultimate, the local, national, and international needs are taken 
into consideration is there proper provision for ever increasing 
growth. 

No such harmonization of the relations of the central and local 
authorities as has been shown to exist in England has been worked 
out in the United States, not even in the separate states. State 
support and State control have been retarded because of the 
"clashing of these two kinds of machinery. Traditions of local 
self-government, fear of bureaucracy, distrust of officials who 
cannot be seen, have led the people to dread the results of state 
participation in the management of the schools," to quote Payson 
Smith. [179, 393-] On the other hand, state departments "need 
to look upon themselves, and try to get others also to regard them 
not as outside agencies coming in to determine the practice and 
procedure of education as with supernal wisdom." [179, 393-] 

Education Is a National Concern. Soon after the outbreak of 
the war America was awakened as never before to the fact that 
"education does not break down anywhere that the people as a 
whole do not share the loss. By the same token, education uni- 
versal and efficient means safety and prosperity common to us all." 
Consequently, the slogan that "the wealth of the nation should 
develop the children of the nation" has become popular. "As a 
major premise I submit," continues Smith, "that the time has 
arrived when the resources and common purpose of our people 
should get behind our educational program, when we must accept 
the principle that we will tax wealth wherever it is for the educa- 
tion of children, wherever they may live, for the solution of our 



Educational Administration 41 

educational problems, wherever they are found, for the production 
of that equality of educational opportunity without which 
democracy can never realize itself to the full." [179, 393.] 

This was the dominant note at the meeting of the Department 
of Superintendence at Chicago, February, 1919. The Smith- 
Towner Bill has the particular purpose in view of putting educa- 
tion on a national basis and since it carries an appropriation of 
$100,000,000 it will have a wide influence. This is the strongest 
attempt ever made in the United States to put education on a 
national basis. It remains to be seen whether it will be successful. 

Comprehensive Versus Type Schools 

The other kind of variety of secondary schools mentioned in a 
previous section, was that of cosmopolitan versus type schools 
within an administrative system. The English do not favor a 
single type of school, for it is thought that only one type of school 
is neither democratic nor is it best for the nation. It is undem- 
ocratic because it offers no choice to the parent in the selection 
of schools. It is not best for the nation because it tends to 
"make all alike." Progress is best fostered by variety. 

England Favors a Variety of Types of Schools, America the Com- 
prehensive Type. All the evidence seems to point to a continu- 
ance of this ideal of a variety of types of schools in England, 
while in America the tendency seems" to point in the direction of 
the comprehsnsive (sometimes called composite or cosmopolitan) 
type of school. Badley [8, 18-19] sa Y s °f the English system 
that "for those who can postpone most of their specifically tech- 
nical or professional training, there must be secondary schools of 
various types. Public Schools, Grammar Schools, County Coun- 
cil Schools, and so forth, can all have their place, and perform 
useful functions in a national system." Later, however, Badley 
says that the question as to "whether several different 'sides' are 
possible in one and the same school or it is best at this stage to 
have complete differentiation of schools into technical, scientific, 
classic and commercial can only be answered by experiment." 
[8,60.] 

It is Mr. Fisher's opinion [203, July 4, 191 8, p. 278] that 
"Local education authorities should bear in mind the need of 
providing different types of education for different types of 
children," and in the administration of schools the local authorities 



42 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

are required to provide a variety of schools in each area and to 
correlate and coordinate the activities of the various schools. 
There is, moreover, to be joint action among groups of schools. 
Each school is not to live to itself alone. [172, Vol. 7, p. 322.] 
For instance, provision must be made by the local authority in 
each area for the study of Latin and Greek either within the area 
or in cooperation with another area, but it is not expected that 
each school will offer these subjects. Similarly advanced courses 
in Science and Mathematics, and Modern Studies must be 
provided in each area but not necessarily given in each school. 
Unnecessary duplication of efforts is to be prevented by the 
proper correlation and coordination of effort among the schools. 
Emphasis is laid on the fact that "effective organization of 
secondary education in an area is impossible if each school is 
treated as an isolated unit, free to take its own line independently 
of all considerations except its own efficiency and prestige, com- 
peting and not cooperating with other schools." [173, February 
1918, p. 59.] 

Reasons Why America Favors the Comprehensive Type of Sec- 
ondary Education. This tendency for schools to compete and not 
cooperate is just what is feared in the United States, and is what 
they are sure will happen if a variety of types of schools should be 
the custom. It is certain that a great amount of overlapping and 
duplication of effort will take place, leading to uneconomic prac 
tice. Hence the comprehensive type is popular in the United 
States. American educators are afraid of this antagonism be- 
tween schools because experience has proved it to be the case in 
practice. The state universities in several of the states have had 
this problem to face wherever there has been a division of state 
schools into state universities and agricultural and mechanical 
colleges. Competition has been a detriment to the growth of 
each and the newer universities have not made any division along 
these lines. The Universities of Minnesota and Florida, for in- 
stance, have consolidated the colleges of engineering, law, educa- 
tion, agriculture, etc., as well as the college of liberal arts under 
one management on the same campus. 

To prevent this destructive rivalry between schools there is a 
similar movement in secondary education. Judd, of the Cleve- 
land Survey staff, found [100, 228-32] the same disastrous effects 
of many types of secondary schools as was just noted in the case of. 



Educational Administration 43 

the universities. He recommended a change to the comprehen- 
sive type. He found, as a matter of fact, that some of the high 
schools which began as commercial or technical high schools had 
in practice developed into comprehensive high schools. 

The United States favors the comprehensive type of high school, 
in the second place, because it is democratic. A typical attitude 
is given in the following statement by Rynearson [165, 698]: 

To segregate those who are going to college from those who are pre- 
paring for industrial and commercial life may engender snobbishness and 
lead to a social division on a false basis of education or vocation. We do 
not want to transplant the stratified society of Europe into democratic 
United States. Pupils of high school age should develop sympathy and 
respect for phases and conditions of life other than their own. This is 
more easily accomplished where all classes meet on a common basis in the 
recitation rooms and on the playground. 

The United States favors the comprehensive high school, in the 
third place, because of its greater adaptability to individual needs. 
If ill-adjusted the pupil can more readily change from one curricu- 
lum to another than from one school to another. 

In the fourth place, the comprehensive high school is favored 
because of certain administrative reasons, such as the attainment 
of certain objectives, as health, worthy use of leisure, and home- 
making, proper provision for which is almost prohibited in the 
smaller type of school. [42, 26.] 

In several of the surveys that have been made in recent years it 
has been strongly recommended that the type of secondary 
school universally established should be of the comprehensive 
type. The Surveying Committee [169, 294-5] of San Francisco 
reaches the conclusion that "the school authorities in San Fran- 
cisco are to be recommended for the adoption and announcement 
of the following progressive program with reference to the high 
school courses of study: (a) Proposed abandonment of the prin- 
ciple of 'type' high schools, and introduction into all schools of as 
many as possible of the foundational subjects of the first two years. 
(b) Virtual acceptance of the principle of the cosmopolitan curricu- 
lum." The Surveying Committees of Boston and Saint Paul 
reach the same conclusion. 

In addition to these statements there are other agencies that are 
strong advocates of the comprehensive type of secondary school 
even in the large cities. One of the "articles of faith" of the 



44 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

School Review [193, 67] is that the comprehensive high school 
should be the type of secondary school in the United States. 
The Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 
give it their approval :" The comprehensive . . . high school, 
embracing all curriculums in one unified organization should 
remain the standard type of secondary school in the United 
States." [42, 24.] The Commission adds that the "junior high 
school must be of the comprehensive type whatever policy be 
adopted for the senior high school since one of the purposes of the 
junior high school is to assist the pupil through a wide variety of 
contacts and experiences to obtain a basis for intelligent choice of 
his educational and vocational career." 

Inglis [94, 698] states that "within recent years there has been 
manifest a growing tendency in cities to establish a series of 
special-type high schools, industrial schools, practical arts high 
schools, and the like." The Surveying Committee of Saint Paul 
makes the same statement [166, 550]. Inglis shows, however, 
that "nearly eleven-twelfths of all the public high schools in this 
country are located in communities of less than eight thousand 
population each, those high schools having on an average from 
sixty to sixty-five pupils each. [94, 120.] In England, however, 
because of the denser population a system of regional schools may 
be established without any great inconvenience, but this is next 
to impossible in all but a few places in the United States. "One 
hundred cities of over 50,000 population would probably be a 
liberal estimate of the number of communities which might be 
able to establish systems of special type high schools, and even 
there not more than two in most cases." [94, 699.] 

It is obvious, therefore, that a system of type schools is not 
possible in most places in the United States, and even where it is 
feasible to establish such a system it has been shown that the 
comprehensive type of secondary school will be the type of the 
future in the United States. 

Dr. David Snedden is the only prominent American educator 
who has been found in this investigation to favor a variety of type 
schools. " He is a poor student of educational aims and methods, ' ' 
he says [184, 173] "who thinks that the tailor, barber, and loco- 
motive engineer, coal miners, (nineteen other vocations here men- 
tioned) are all going to be trained vocationally in some phantastic 
'cosmopolitan,' 'democratic,' high school of the future. . . . 



Educational Administration 45 

Vocational public schools for each and every one of the above 
vocations, as well as hundreds of others, we are destined to have, 
and each of these schools will be expected eventually to turn out 
workers trained relatively for the immediate exercise of their 
vocations no less completely than is now the West Point second 
lieutenant." Snedden thinks that the commercial, the home- 
making, and the industrial schools "should be completely inde- 
pendent of each other, just as each should be independent of 
schools of liberal education as regards organization, staffing, 
equipment, etc." [183, 71.] 

A proposal to separate vocational and liberal education into 
separate schools has been fought out very vigorously in the legis- 
lature of Illinois. The decision against such separation seems to 
have been accepted as final and since then no other state has at- 
tempted to pass a law making a separation of schools into types. 
The policies of the Federal Board of Vocational Education may 
have a tendency in this direction. This remains yet to be seen. 
Although there is strong opposition to the comprehensive type of 
secondary school in some quarters nevertheless the consensus of 
opinion seems to be in its favor. 

It is possible that England on account of its comparatively 
homogeneous population needs to take care that variety of 
abilities be developed, while the United States on account of the 
heterogeneity of population needs a melting-pot. One of the 
facts brought out by the war was that the Americanization of a 
large part of the population is one of the important problems fac- 
ing the American public today. Consequently it is possible that 
the comprehensive type of secondary school is better suited to 
the needs of the people of the United States and at the same time 
a variety of types is better suited to English needs. 

Articulation 

In the preceding chapter it was stated that there is considerable 
dissatisfaction with the work of the last two years of the elemen- 
tary school. In America it is stated that the high school pupils 
at graduation are two years behind their European contemporaries. 
[172, Vol. 7, p. 269.] It is claimed that the pupil is only marking 
time in the last two years of the elementary school and since large 
numbers of pupils cannot remain beyond the age of fifteen or six- 
teen social efficiency demands that this time be saved. It is 



46 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

further maintained that the pupil by the age of twelve has suffi- 
ciently mastered the tools of knowledge and is sufficiently matured 
mentally, to enable him to profit by secondary school subjects. 
Consequently, there is a demand for a reorganization of secondary 
education so that the pupil will pass from the elementary to the 
secondary school about the age of twelve. 

The Age of Twelve the Dividing Line Between Elementary and 
Secondary Education. It seems that the age of twelve is also 
coming to be the dividing line between elementary and secondary 
education in England. However, there are two important dif- 
ferences in the two countries: (a) There continues to be an over- 
lapping of two or three years in England between elementary and 
secondary education. In America there is no such overlapping. 
(b) The English 6-4-2 plan is different from the American 6-3-3 
plan in that at the end of the four year period in England the 
student may take the First Examination. If successful in this 
he may pass immediately to the university thus saving two years 
over the American student. However, his chance of taking an 
Honours degree at the university rather than simply a Pass de- 
gree is not great and the more ambitious student will remain for 
the Second Examination taken two years later, and in the mean- 
time he pursues Advanced Courses which prepares him for the 
intensive specialisation required later for an Honours degree. 
These two years are more similar to the American junior college 
than to the last two years of the American high school. 

It seems that this organization will continue for the next few 
years in England. This belief is based on the facts (a) that Ad- 
vanced Courses have already been established under the Regula- 
tions for Secondary Schools for 191 8; (b) Statements from writers 
and reports of committees favor the tranference to secondary 
school not later than twelve; (c) Transference to junior technical, 
junior commercial and central schools is already made at twelve. 

The only question concerns the age of transference to the 
regular secondary schools. Individual writers state that a 
decision as to the kind of school one is to attend should be made 
"by the age of 11 or 12 at the least." [8, 53; and 67, 265. 
See also 173, April, 1915, p. 131.] The Committee on the 
Position of Modern Languages in the Educational System of 
Great Britain found [43, 71] that "recent administrative changes 
have brought it about that in many districts pupils are trans- 



Educational Administration 47 

ferred at or about the age of twelve." A similar Committee on 
the Position of Science thinks that children can learn science at 
an earlier age than fourteen or fourteen and one-half [44, 12]. 
This Committee is of the opinion that the position of science 
depends on this twelve to sixteen organization [44, 9]. Also a 
committee appointed by the British Association says that "free 
places should not be awarded to children above twelve years of 
age." [172, Vol. 9, p. 440.] 

The Plan of Articulation of the Times Educational Supplement. 
Another plan, strongly advocated by the Times Educational Sup- 
plement as early as December 7, 1915 (p. 143), proposes that: 
"Education should give an outfit for life. We need a revolution 
in the conception of education in its relation to the life of a people, 
and we need machinery that will make the new conception opera- 
tive." This periodical advocated an amalgamation of elemen- 
tary and secondary education by which plan elementary educa- 
tion should disappear and "preparatory" education would take 
its place. This amounts to the same thing as the American 
practice of sending all pupils to elementary school for the first 
years of school life and all to the secondary school for later years. 
By this plan the "preparatory" stage of the child's education 
would extend up to the age of eleven and superimposed upon it 
would be four years of liberal training compulsory for all. "The 
present system," says the Times Educational Supplement (October 
5, 1915), "turns certain elementary schools into cramming schools 
for scholarships." 

The Times Educational Supplement has later stated that "it 
will be perfectly easy, from an administrative point of view, to 
reorganize the schools so as to allot certain buildings to children 
under twelve years and others to children between eleven and 
fifteen in which a strictly secondary education will be available for 
all." [March 20, 1919, p. 139.] The adoption of this scheme is 
probably remote unless the continuation schools evolve into a 
system of secondary schools for the lower and middle classes. 

If this plan should be adopted, admission to the secondary 
school will be conditioned on completing the elementary curricu- 
lum. In England, hitherto it has been based upon entrance 
examinations. The United States, on the other hand, seems in- 
clined to move away from this system and make age the basis for 
admission to the secondary school. (See above, p. 19.) This is 



48 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

one of the most revolutionary recommendations of the last few 
years. This tendency is exactly in line with the American belief 
that secondary education should be universal. It is thought that 
a pupil will benefit more from associating with pupils of his own 
age than with younger pupils even though he may not have at- 
tained a higher degree of advancement than the younger pupils. 
Reference has already been made to the fact that the Commis- 
sion on the Reorganization of Secondary Education recommended 
that every child of high school age should be transferred to the 
high school at the beginning of the high school period. [42, 16. 
See also 48, 217-19, and 166, 617.] The Commission is also of 
the opinion that a similar obligation rests upon the college. 

Admission to College by Mental Tests. There is also a move- 
ment on foot to admit students to college on the basis of mental 
ability rather than on that of information ready at hand. For 
the old-fashioned entrance examinations psychological tests will 
be substituted. In the future Columbia University will admit 
students according to this plan, although the entrance examina- 
tions of the customary type will not be discontinued for the 
present. A similar experiment is being tried at the University of 
Florida. In 1916 Haggerty of the University of Minnesota gave 
a series of tests to the candidates for entrance to the medical school 
of that institution. Haggerty thinks that his results "mean that 
an entrance examination board can determine by three hours 
work the fitness of one hundred applicants for the work in a medi- 
cal school more exactly than they can derive such information 
from the laborious examination records, often hard to obtain 
and equivocal." [203, February 20, 1919, p. 85.] Thorndike, 
who has charge of the tests at Columbia, makes a similar claim 
that "A psychologist who scored the group from a two-hour test 
with pencil and paper, never seeing one of them or knowing any- 
thing about any one of them save the test score, would probably 
come nearer the true estimate of their intelligence than the aver- 
age single judge on three months' acquaintance." [172, Vol. 9, 
p. 194.] 

The result of this movement, if adopted widely, will be to elimi- 
nate the old cramming college preparatory curriculum as such in 
the high school. The high school will, thereby, be freed from col- 
lege domination. It can then work out its destiny as the school 
for the development of adolescents in all their varied capacity. 



Educational Administration 49 

The articulation of the elementary school with the high school 
and of the high school with the college would under these condi- 
tions be much simpler than at present, but the scope of the work 
in the high school and also in the college would be much more 
complex than at present, for individual aptitudes would have to 
be much more carefully taken into consideration. It will break 
up the old tradition that each year's work is dependent upon the 
preceding; and bring about the following state of affairs: "The 
tradition that a particular type of education and that exclusively 
non-vocational in character, is the only possible preparation for 
advanced education, either liberal or vocational, must give way 
to a scientific evaluation of all types of secondary education as 
preparing for continued study." This will mean that "pupils 
who during the secondary period devoted a considerable time to 
courses having vocational content should be permitted to pursue 
whatever form of higher education, either liberal or vocational, 
they are able to undertake with profit to themselves and to 
society." [42, 17.] 

Only the following statement by Rev. William Temple has been 
found to indicate that the English are looking to the same solu- 
tion. "The tutorial class movement has made two discoveries. 
. . . The other discovery is this. A man who has had no 
secondary education at all can take up work of the university 
type when he is of full age if his mind has remained alert. I be- 
lieve that many continuation classes fail through ignorance or 
neglect of this fact. We always tend to restart the teaching 
process at the exact point which the student has reached when he 
left school. This is a mistake. The man or woman whose edu- 
cation ended at fourteen or thirteen, and who becomes desirous 
of more at twenty-one or later, has lost much in the way of knowl- 
edge; but if the mind has remained alert the development of 
faculty has gone on and the appropriate method of study is that 
of the university and not that of the secondary school." [198, 
Vol. 4, p. 578.] 

It seems certain, therefore, that by whatever policy pupils are 
admitted to secondary schools, it is more and more agreed that the 
age at which admission should be granted is about the age of 
twelve. 



50 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Conclusions 

From the preceding discussions it is seen that the English and 
the American systems of secondary education are different in 
some respects and similar in others. The chief difference is that 
of universal secondary education, and out of this grow many of 
the other differences. Differences as to free secondary education, 
public and private schools, comprehensive and type schools are 
outgrowths of the more fundamental difference in regard to uni- 
versal secondary education. England has not adopted a system 
of universal secondary education and hence has not adopted free 
secondary education; and believes in both public and private 
schools, and a variety of types of schools, while American tend- 
encies are in the opposite direction. However, it seems prob- 
able that the development of the secondary schools in England 
will be accompanied more and more by a growth of universal free 
secondary education of the American type. In regard to a na- 
tional system of secondary education American and English prac- 
tices are not so divergent, though England has progressed much 
further in that direction than the United States. In regard to 
articulation between secondary and elementary education the 
tendencies seem to be about the same, the dividing line being about 
the age of twelve. 



CHAPTER III 

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PROGRAM OF STUDIES 
IN ENGLAND AND THE UNITED STATES 

The number of studies offered in a modern school system has 
increased to such an extent that it is impossible for any one pupil 
to pursue them all and this has made differentiation of curricu- 
lums 1 necessary. Multiform division of labor in adult life has 
indicated to modern educators that there should be a correlative 
specialisation in school life. Therefore, there has developed in 
some places the practice of differentiating curriculums in such a 
way that the pupils' program shows a high degree of specialisa- 
tion, even early in the high school period. 

Democracy Demands Diversity and Unity 

How early in school life specialisation should begin and to 
what extent it should be carried is, at present, one of the most 
prominent problems in the organization of the program of studies, 
for in a democratic school system two characteristics should per- 
meate every program of studies: one is diversity; the other se- 
quence or unity. What the program offer's to the pupil should be 
rich in the number of its offerings to the end that any pupil may 
find in it the kind of studies that will enable him to cultivate his 
individual aptitudes. For democracy demands that there be a 
sufficient diversity -for any child of normal mentality to find the 
kind of training that will properly develop his mental and physi- 
cal capacities. The pupil's individual program should also be 
rich in social content for the purpose of developing a broad and 
sympathetic insight not only into his own calling but also into 
the work of his fellows, for it is an essential need of democracy 
that one be socially efficient as well as individually efficient. 
The program of studies should, therefore, provide for each pupil 
an experience that shall be full and varied and at the same time 

1 The terminology here used is the same as that used by C. H. Johnston 
[97, 583-4]. A "program of studies" is the total offering of a school. A 
"curriculum" is "any schematic arrangement of courses which extends through 
a number of years and which leads to a certificate or diploma, and which is 
planned for any clearly differentiated group of high-school pupils." 

51 



52 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

be unified in spirit. This experience should not be narrow and 
monotonous in its unity, but still it should be a unit and not 
separated into disconnected bits. One should eventually be 
prepared both for an enlarged life in a democracy and for special- 
isation. 

Two fundamental questions arise: Can the program of studies 
be so organized that breadth of outlook may be the result without 
at the same time sacrificing efficiency of administrative execution? 
Is it possible to select subjects of study so that they will reinforce 
one another instead of constituting ends pursued at one an- 
other's expense? [56, 291.] In many schools there is an unde- 
sirable rivalry between the subjects of the program. This is 
neither conducive to diversity nor to a wholesome sequence and 
unity. Diversity and unity are not contradictory so that when 
one is present the other is necessarily absent, but they are com- 
plementary so that when one is present it promotes the other. 
Thus on every hand the problems that curriculum makers must 
face are twofold. 

Qualities Desirable in a Democratic Society 

The reason that any program of studies should attain the ends 
that are implied in the preceding paragraph is that they are 
qualities which are most desirable in a democratic society. "The 
ideal of a democracy," says the Commission on the Reorganiza- 
tion of Secondary Education, "involves, on the one hand, special- 
isation whereby individuals and groups of individuals may be- 
come effective in the various vocations and other fields of human 
endeavor, and, on the other hand, unification whereby the mem- 
bers of that democracy may obtain those common ideas, common 
ideals, and common modes of thought, feeling, and action that 
make for cooperation, social cohesion and social solidarity. 

"Without effective specialisation on the part of groups of 
individuals there can be no progress. Without unification in 
a democracy there can be no worthy community life and no con- 
certed action for necessary social ends. Increasing specialisation 
emphasizes the need for unification, without which a democracy 
is a prey to enemies at home and abroad." [42, 21.] 

It follows that within any group of people due opportunities 
must be afforded for the development of individual strength and 
initiative. There is, likewise, a necessity for specialisation of the 



Organization of Program of Studies 53 

members of the group. The efforts of individuals should be 
coordinated and directed toward well chosen ends for the good 
of the group. This implies a need for the mobilization of thought 
and just as much need for its diffusion. Individual efficiency and 
originality must be supplemented by social efficiency, for "uni- 
fication, organization, harmony is the demand of every aspect of 
life — politics, business, science." [58, 19.] The high points 
in the development of nations in the past have come after 
periods of wide individual freedom and development. The low 
points have come either after freedom and individuality have 
been suppressed or after it has been carried to an extreme, and 
socialization and cooperation have been reduced to a minimum. 
A static society is characterized by uniformity, while a dynamic 
society encourages change and diversity. If a society is to grow 
there is need for both diversification of efforts, on the one hand, 
and unification and coordination of activities on the other, and 
this becomes more and more necessary as society becomes more 
and more complex. The greater the number of instruments in 
an orchestra the greater the need for the various parts to be 
correlated and harmonized, and so it is in a complex society. 

Curriculum Organization in England 

Every program of studies should in some way endeavor to 
secure these several complementary values. In both England 
and the United States such attempts are being made. The 
attempts to solve these problems of curriculum organization in 
England has had its history with certain definite results. For 
more than half a century the Ejriglish educators have waged a 
bitter conflict over the question as to the relative values of the 
curriculum, especially of science and the classics. This question 
was raised shortly after 1850 by such eminent men of science as 
Huxley and Spencer and has been waged intermittently ever 
since. The point was gradually yielded that it was inexpedient 
to treat all pupils alike and hence some kind of differentiation was 
necessary. As a compromise between the advocates of the two 
types of subject-matter there resulted a bifurcation of the second- 
ary school curriculum into "Sides," classical and modern. Other 
sides have been added since this first division. It was expected 
that those students who were most interested in classics would 
specialise in them from an early age, practically neglecting other 



54 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

subjects, and those who were most interested in modern subjects 
would specialise on the modern or scientific " Side." Despite this 
concession, however, the English conception of liberal education 
continued to be thought of in terms of language and literature, 
and secondary education was predominantly classical up to the 
outbreak of the war. 

The following statement by Sir F. G. Kenyon seems to be an 
accurate description of the English situation: 

It can hardly be necessary to labour the point that the examination for 
entrance scholarships at the universities have in the past been the main 
cause of premature and excessive specialisation at schools. So long as 
pecuniary assistance towards the expenses of a University course could 
only be obtained by success in a competitive examination, school educa- 
tion was inevitably, to a large extent, guided and moulded by the necessity 
of preparing students for these examinations. When Oxford and Cam- 
bridge were almost the only Universities in England, the only chance which 
many boys had of obtaining a University education was to win a scholar- 
ship at one or the other of the Colleges at these Universities. Parents 
were therefore urgent that their boys should be prepared for these scholar- 
ship examinations, and schools were to a great extent judged by their suc- 
cess in these competitions. If, therefore, the scholarship examinations 
were specialised, the school education was necessarily specialised also. 
Promising candidates were taken off work on subjects other than that in 
which they intended to compete; specialisation began early, and was very 
intense in the later stages. The classical scholar did little History or 
Science or Mathematics during the later years of his school course; the 
Science student learned equally little of the Humanities. The most for- 
tunate schools were those which had closed scholarships attached to them 
at one or other of the Universities, for which the examination could be 
accommodated to the school curriculum, instead of the curriculum being 
accommodated to the examination, [in, 6.] 

This briefly has been the history of the development of the 
curriculum in England. Since the war began, however, England 
has undergone especially radical changes in this respect. With 
the outbreak of the war the old controversy between the "an- 
cients" and "moderns" which had been more or less prominent 
for over half a century broke out afresh. [208, 191 8, p. 68.] 
Then instead of trying to reorganize their schools on the basis of 
adjustment with modern life, they renewed the old quarrel as to 
the value of the various subjects. What knowledge is of most 
worth was the prime consideration. The scientist based his 



Organization of Program of Studies 55 

claims on his ability to produce means for the accomplishment 
of certain ends. It was evident that Germany had outstripped 
the rest of the world in applied science. This was in the hey-dey 
of German success and the scientist sought to use this fact for the 
advancement of his special subject. On the other hand, the 
classicist prided himself on the fact that the classical type of 
education did not produce brutal materialists. He pointed to 
the ends which Germany had set up, and claimed that even 
though his type of education was not practical, that is, did not 
fit means to ends, it did supply worthy ends. The scientist 
countered with the statement that within itself science is neither 
good nor bad ; it could just as well be used for worthy as unworthy 
purposes; the work of the world had to be done and science had 
come to be a necessary factor in that work ; those in authority had 
made glaring mistakes by ignorance of even the simpler elements 
of science. Consequently, more consideration for science was 
claimed as essential in the modern world. 

Thus the controversy waged for a year or two until a move- 
ment was set on foot to harmonize the conflicting claims. Then 
the question was raised as to the meaning and purpose of educa- 
tion; not whether this or that subject should be taught. How- 
ever, the basis for the organization of the curriculum continued to 
be that of predominant studies rather than the post-scholastic 
destinies of pupils. It will be shown when the American system 
is taken up below that the tendency in the United States is to 
make the latter the basis of curriculum organization. 

The Letter on the Neglect of Science which appeared in 191 6 
in the Times Educational Supplement [February 2] brought things 
to a head in England. A letter three months later [no, 5-8] 
on the other side warned against a narrow interpretation of the 
needs of education in a democracy. It began to seem that it 
might be possible to get the contending parties together and 
organize a curriculum in such a way that the claims of the 
classicists, the scientists, and the modernists might all be satisfied 
and at the same time the pupils derive a greater benefit from the 
new system than from the old. Kenyon shows clearly that recent 
considerations of the curriculum have been the result of an attempt 
to come to an agreement as to the kind of education needed under 
the new conditions, and to give each subject its proper place in 
the curriculum. The professed object of Kenyon's book [no, 4] 



56 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

was "to record certain attempts that have been made to give a 
healthier tone to the discussion ; to show that a large measure of 
agreement is possible among the advocates of the several sub- 
jects which form the staple of our secondary education; and to 
bring the weight of this agreement to bear on the solution of the 
outstanding problems which have been the cause of bitter con- 
troversy in the past." 

The ultimate outcome is somewhat as follows: 
i. Specialisation of any kind is postponed until the age of 
sixteen. Even after sixteen, although the student is allowed to 
specialise in one of three fields, Classics, Modern Studies, or 
Science, he is not permitted exclusive specialisation even then. 
Complete specialisation is deferred till the university period. 
The English are particularly opposed to early specialisation for 
vocational purposes. 

2. The old division into Sides is discouraged. 

3. To secure unity and sequence, the number of subjects 
offered is limited. It is planned to give a broad general education 
based upon the staple subjects properly harmonized and blended. 
Further than this the writer has found no plan by which the 
English expect to secure a desirable organization of the program 
of studies. It is true that statements have been found to the 
effect that all students should not be treated alike, but no plan 
of differentiation given. 

The Postponement of Specialisation. On no principle of curric- 
ulum organization is there so much unanimity of agreement in 
England as that specialisation should be postponed at least until 
the age of sixteen. Almost no opposition has been found to this 
policy. It has the backing of the Times Educational Supplement 
and the School World, two of the most popular educational 
journals. The former states: "We need hardly say after all that 
has been written in these pages on the subject, that we yield to 
no one in our opposition to early specialisation. It should be 
made clear that no children are to be trained for industry before 
the age of fifteen." [173, August 16, 1917, p. 321.] The School 
World 1 is of opinion that "it is desirable that no specialisation of 
any kind (not even in Latin) should be allowed before the age of 
fourteen, and there are good arguments for postponing it a year 
beyond that." [173, June, 1916, p. 208.] Even after this age has 

1 The School World is now incorporated with the Journal of Education. 



Organization of Program of Studies 57 

been passed, the School World is of opinion that "the older pupil 
specialising in science must not grow up indifferent to language 
and literature, nor the classical scholar to modern knowledge." 
[Ibid., p. 216.] 

The postponement of specialisation also has the backing of 
various educational and scientific associations. In Sir Frederick 
Kenyon's little volume, Education Scientific and Humane, there 
are as many as seven different statements from these associations 
to the effect that it is undesirable to specialise before the age of 
sixteen. Most of these are in the form of resolutions, as will 
appear from what follows. 

The first of these statements was included in the letter of May 
4, 1916 of the Council of Humanistic Studies written in reply to 
the letter on the "Neglect of Science" of February 2 of the same 
year. It says: 

Some of its (physical science's) most distinguished representatives have 
strongly insisted that early specialisation is injurious to the interests they 
have at heart, and the best preparation for scientific pursuits is a general 
training which includes some study of language, literature, and history. 
Such a training gives width of view and flexibility of intellect. Industry 
and commerce will be most successfully pursued by men whose education 
has stimulated their imagination and widened their sympathies. [1 10, 6.] 

The next statement was a resolution signed by representatives 
from each of five different associations, the English, Classical, 
Geographical, Historical, and Modern Language. It is as 
follows : 

Premature specialisation on any one particular group of studies whether 
humanistic or scientific, to the exclusion of all others, is a serious danger, 
not only to education generally, but to the studies concerned, [no, 9.] 

The third statement was signed by a Conference between the 
Council for Humanistic Studies and the "Neglect of Science" 
Committee : 

That in all schools in which education is normally continued up to or 
beyond the age of sixteen, and in other schools so far as circumstances 
permit, the curriculum up to about the age of sixteen should be general 
and not specialized, and that in this curriculum these five groups of sub- 
jects should be integrally represented: 

(1) Languages other than English. (2) English and History. (3) 
Mathematical. (4) Natural Sciences and Geography. (5) Artistic and 
Manual Training, [no, 14.] 



58 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

The same resolution was passed by a conference between the 
Sub-Committee on Education of the Board of Scientific Societies 
and the Council for Humanistic Studies, [no, 20.] The follow- 
ing from the Board of Scientific Societies is of like nature. 

In all schools in which education is normally continued up to or beyond 
the age of sixteen, and in other schools so far as circumstances permit, the 
curriculum up to about the age of sixteen should be general and not 
specialised, [no, 22.] 

And from the Classical Association 

"That premature specialisation in any particular study is contrary to 
the public advantage, as well as to the best interest of that study itself 
and of its students." [no, 30.] 

Kenyon himself adds the statement that "it is not a little that 
the organizations which represent all the principal subjects of 
education, whether scientific or humanistic, should agree in 
deprecating early specialisation, and should recognize the impor- 
tance of opening the doors of all subjects to all pupils, and facilitat- 
ing their entrance into the paths most suitable for them." [no, 
23-24.] 

The educational writers are almost without exception in favor 
of postponing specialisation to a comparatively mature age. 1 
Mr. Fisher, President of the Board of Education, is one of this 
number. " It is a mistake," he says, "to be too specific, and they 
(the trade unions) must rid themselves of the fallacy of the 
particular end." [203, January 10, 1918, p. 14.] 

The English are especially insistent that whatever else may 
happen no specialisation for vocational purposes shall take place 
early in the pupil's school career. A typical attitude is to be 
found in the following statement by Sir J. D. McClure: 

It follows that for the majority at least, exclusive or excessive speciali- 
sation in training — vocational or otherwise — so far from being an advan- 
tage is a positive drawback: for, as we have seen, a large proportion of 
our youth manifest no marked bent in any particular direction, and of 
those who do but a small proportion are capable of that hypertrophy 
which the highest specialisation demands. 

It is important to remember that, though school life is a preparation for 
practical life, vocational education ought not to begin until a compara- 

1 Among them are Bishop Frodsam, Nineteenth Century, Vol. 78, p. 948. 
Sir James Yoxall, M. B., Times Educational Supplement, August 16, 1917, pp. 
316 and 321, and Sir Oliver L. Lodge, the School World, February 1916, p. 57.. 



Organization of Program of Studies 59 

tively late stage in a boy's career, if indeed it begins at all while he remains 
at school. On this it would seem that all professional bodies are agreed; 
. . . the evils of premature specialisation are too well known to re- 
quire even enumeration, and they are increased rather than diminished 
if that premature specialisation is vocational. The importance of tech- 
nical training whereby a man is enabled rightly to use the hours of work 
can hardly be exaggerated, but the value of his work, his worth to his fel- 
lows, and his rank in the scale of manhood depend, to at least an equal 
degree, upon the way in which he spends his hours of leisure. [15, 201-02.] 

J. H. Badley says that "it is now commonly admitted that any 
special technical training of whatever kind is of little use before 
the age of sixteen." [8, 18.] He thinks that there should be a 
general course for all alike, "whatever line they are to follow 
later." [8, 120.] 

The head of a great business concern, quoted in Benson's 
Cambridge Essays on Education, thinks that "specialised educa- 
tion at school is of no practical value. There is ample time after 
a boy has started business to acquire all the technical knowledge 
that his brain is capable of assimilating. ' ' [15,208.] This sounds 
rather positive, and Sir J. D. McClure in commenting on it says 
that this statement "would certainly be challenged by those 
schools which possess a strong well-organized engineering side for 
their older boys. But there would be substantial unanimity — 
begotten of long and often bitter experience — in favor of his plea 
that a sound general education up tothe age of sixteen or seven- 
teen, at any rate, is an indispensable condition of satisfactory 
vocational training." 

In England vocational education is not considered a part of 
secondary education. " It has nothing to do with education, and 
we, as interested in education, have nothing to do with it; except 
indeed this: That we need vehemently to protest against such 
early specialisation as may develop wealth-producing capacities at 
the cost of dwarfing the human nature as a whole." [198, 572.] 

Even in the continuation schools the first two years, that is, 
from the ages from fourteen to sixteen, are to be devoted to the 
same general purpose as that of the secondary school, — broad 
liberal education. A quotation from the proceedings of Parlia- 
ment while the question of continuation schools was being con- 
sidered will make their whole attitude toward vocational educa- 
tion clear. [Reported in the Times Educational Supplement.] 



60 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Colonel Wedgwood moved an amendment to substitute "courses of 
education" for "courses of instruction" in the description of the work to 
be done by continuation schools. He said thatit had hitherto been assumed 
in British education that the idea was to draw out the best that was in a 
child and to build up its character — to make an Englishman instead of a 
German. In this Bill was introduced an entirely different object — the 
production of a machine tool admirably suited to working for a master. 
That was a step which the House ought to hesitate to take. There were 
plenty of examples of this new form of education in the world. The most 
splendid were to be found in Germany. When it was decided that a child 
should be a chimney sweep, from that time its education centered around 
the chimney. (Laughter.) Its sums were counted with the prices of soot 
and the prices of sweeping chimneys. If once the country slipped into the 
practice of providing instruction for adolescence attempts would inevi- 
tably be made to force them into particular industries, and they would be 
conscribed for these industries for the rest of their lives. A step would 
have been taken in the direction of slavery. 

Mr. Goldstone suggested that if the President of the Board of Edu- 
cation would give assurance that no scheme from a local authority would 
be approved if it aimed at a directly vocational type of education the 
honourable and gallant member's objections would be met. 

Mr. Fisher had no hesitation in giving such assurance. In fact it was 
already found in the rhetorical sentence at the head of the clause and it was 
precisely with the view of meeting the objection or misconception of the 
honourable and gallant member that the sentence had been inserted that 
the intention was to make it clear to every local authority responsible for 
this new type of education that the government did not desire it to be a 
vocational type of education, strictly and exclusively technical, and that 
they did desire it to be in the broadest sense of the term a humane form of 
education. It was a broad system, comprising literary and artistic instruc- 
tion, that they desired to see continued during the period of adolescence. 

Sir R. Adkins expressed doubt whether the word "instruction" used 
in this connection would always receive the wide interpretation which had 
been given it by the President of the Board of Education. 

Sir Philip Magnus contended that there was no necessity to alter the 
terms of the clause. The President was acting wisely in not attempting 
to define precisely the kind of instruction which might be given in con- 
tinuation schools. 

Captain Sir C. Bathurst said he viewed with some alarm the trend of 
the discussion. If education of young persons between the ages of fourteen 
and eighteen years were to have no relation to their future employment, 
the continuation schools would be condemned throughout the rural areas. 

Mr. Rawlinson urged that care should be taken not to continue the 
education of a boy until he became eighteen years old in such a way as to 



Organization of Program of Studies 6 1 

unfit him for the occupation which he wished to follow after he reached 
that age. 

Mr. Raff an said the Bill would fall lamentably if the opportunity were 
not given to the working classes to acquire a real interest in literature, 
science and art. 

Mr. J. R. MacDonald urged Mr. Fisher to give some sort of guarantee 
that the instruction should be of such a nature that the workman starting 
life in the factory might emerge into a much wider and perhaps a more 
useful world. 

Mr. Fisher hoped that the members would rid themselves of the im- 
pression that there was necessary antagonism between vocational educa- 
tion and liberal education. He admitted that there were illiberal forms of 
vocational training, but it would be the duty of the Board of Education 
that it make no appearance in the continuation schools. But they should 
be foolish were they to arrange a system which paid no attention at any 
stage of a four years' course to the occupation which the boy or girl was to 
follow. (Hear, hear.) He did not think that was a course which would 
be welcomed by the working classes. It would not be to the interest of 
an educated democracy that there should be no connection between the 
education they were seeking in the schools and the lives they were to live. 
At the same time he felt that education should be a great liberating force, 
that it should provide compensation against the sordid monotony which 
attached to so much of the industrial life of the country by lifting the 
workers to a more elevated and purer atmosphere, and the Board would 
be false to the purpose for which the Bill was framed if it were to sanction 
a system in the continuation schools in which due attention was not paid 
to the liberal aspects of education. (Hear, hear.) 

Sir J. Yoxall said that if the phrase in the clause was made "courses of 
instruction and education" the object of the supporters of the amendment, 
that boys and girls in the continuation schools should not have to give all 
their time to technical instruction would be secured. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Sir R. Williams thought that in the light of the 
discussion the local authorities might be trusted to frame schemes in which 
the two aspects of education would be blended and that it was not neces- 
sary to press the amendment to a division. [203; May 9, 1918, p. 194.] 

The statements by Captain Sir C. Bathurst and Mr. Rawlinson 
were one of only two instances that seemed to be opposed to the 
postponement of specialisation. The other appeared in the 
Times Educational Supplement [203, March 7, 1918, p. 107]. 
"Boys and girls will never be trained to be good members of 
society unless they are trained to be good at their jobs." [203, 
March 7, 1918, p. 107.] 



62 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

The Abolition of Sides. The postponement of specialisation 
will necessitate a change in attitude toward the division of the 
school into Sides. That such a division has not given satisfaction 
is stated by numerous writers. Benson's ideas are emphatic: 
"The opposition that has in modern times been set up between 
science on the one hand and a jumble of studies labeled either 
literature or humanistic studies on the other is to my mind wholly 
unfounded in the nature of things and destructive of any liberal 
view of education." [15, 103-04.] 

Among the educational magazines the Times Educational 
Supplement has been most outspoken in opposition to the con- 
tinuance of Sides. It says: "It can be maintained that the 
division of our schools into classical and modern sides has worked 
for ill rather than for good. ... At present, owing to our 
custom of separating the sides, boys leave school with a feeling 
approaching contempt for those who have not been taught on the 
same lines." [203, October 26, 1916, p. 186.] The Times thinks 
that we might "have the ground work of a liberal education and 
secure variety without destroying unity." It again states that 
"general education would be benefited by there being no division 
of schools into sides at the 12 to 16 stage." [203, April 18, 191 8, 
p. 165.] 

One of the "conclusions" of the Committee on the Position of 
Modern Languages in the Educational System of Great Britain 
[43, 62] expresses the same opinion: "We consider the division of 
schools below the stage of the First School certificate into Classical 
and Modern Sides to be unsound in principle and it does not 
appear to have been successful in practice." 1 In the body of the 
report the reason for this recommendation is given: "Modern 
Sides, however, have been established as a half-hearted concession 

to a half-hearted public demand We welcome a hint 

conveyed to us by an eminent headmaster that some of his pro- 
fession were anxious to abolish all separation of Sides up to the 
time of the First School Examination and have heard with satis- 
faction that in at least four important Public Schools the organiza- 
tion has been modified so as to discontinue the sharp differentia- 
tion of the school into Classical and Modern Sides." [43, 38.] 

The Committee on the Position of Science in the Educational 



1 There was a minority report on this point objecting to the recommenda- 
tion that this division is wrong. 



Organization of Program of Studies 63 

System of Great Britain also gives a similar opinion: "In our 
view it is a very real defect in public school organization that boys 
should in many schools have to make their choice between a 
classical side in which science is almost wholly neglected and a 
modern side in which the general educational conditions are in 
many ways unfavorable. . . . Many of the ablest boys who 
enter the public schools pass on to the universities ignorant of 
science and with little or no idea of its importance as a factor in 
the progress of civilization or its influence on human thought." 
[203, April 18, 1918, p. 165.] It thinks that the beneficial conse- 
quence of the establishment of a general course for all boys up to 
the age of about 16 would be the abolition of the existing division 
into sides now so usual in the larger schools. 

With individual educators all in favor of a broad general type 
of education, with the educational journals in favor of it, with 
various committees and associations supporting the movement, 
and practically no opposition to it, it seems safe to conclude that 
this type of education is sure to be the policy of the secondary 
school in England. In fact, it can be safely said that to no edu- 
cational problem with the exception of the Recent Education 
Act, have the English educators devoted so much thought and 
attention as to a reorganization of secondary education on this 
line. 

To secure unity and sequence the English are willing to limit 
the number of subjects and to concentrate upon them. In fact, 
some of their writers feel a need for some kind of synthesis to 
bring the various fields together. Kenyon says: (no, 5, foot- 
note) "Indeed, it is the main object of the movement recorded 
in this pamphlet to secure this fusion of science and humanism," 
and Hobhouse over twenty years ago saw a need for something 
like this. At that time he said:. "So far from seeing our way to a 
near or distant synthesis we are more distracted than ever when 
we turn from science to philosophy. Instead of uniting the 
sciences, philosophy threatens to become a separate and even a 
hostile doctrine." The Times Educational Supplement after 
quoting this statement with evident commendation added that 
Hobhouse "is not without hope of a synthesis yet to be wrought." 
[203, October 17, 1918, p. 441.] This is taken to mean that a 
program of studies should be so organized as to secure both di- 
versity and unity. 



64 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

During the war other writers expressed similar ideas, such as, 
"concentration is needed," [173, February 191 8, p. 58] and 
" a limitation of studies is long overdue," [14, Benson: 1293]. A 
writer in the School World [173, February 1915, p. 51] is of the 
opinion that "premature specialisation is anathema," but is not 
"sure that a little knowledge of many things is not very much 
more dangerous." It was the opinion of the Committee on the 
Position of Modern Languages in the Educational System of 
Great Britain that the exaggerated importance attached to a 
"multiplicity of languages is prejudicial to the preparatory schools 
and to the public schools that depend on them." [43, 39.] This 
committee recommends that fewer languages be taught to the 
majority of students in the secondary schools; that "three lan- 
guages are too many for a high majority; two languages are too 
many for a considerable proportion. . . . Each individual 
should only take so many as he can hope to bring to a worthy 
measure of fruition." [43, 39.] The foreign languages upon 
which emphasis should be placed are French, and when a second 
language is taken, always Latin. 

The subjects upon which the pupil is to concentrate his atten- 
tion according to the Regulations for Secondary Schools for 191 8 
are: (1) English, (2) Languages other than English, (3) History 
and Geography, (4) Mathematics and Science, (5) Art and 
Manual Training. This program the English consider sufficient 
in scope to secure a desirable diversity, and at the same time not 
too extensive to prohibit pupils from becoming familiar with a 
large part of the program of studies, thus securing unity in the 
pupil's individual program. By not having a too extensive pro- 
gram the pupils are not as likely to be divided into social classes; 
but it is a question whether the English program is sufficient for 
differences in individual capacities and aptitudes. An American 
educator would certainly consider this a bookish type of educa- 
tion, and, consequently, a specialised curriculum, none the less. 
Dewey, for instance, in speaking of the program that has char- 
acterized education in the past, says: [57, 24] "It is our present 
education which is highly specialised, one-sided and narrow. 
. . . It is something which appeals for the most part simply 
to the intellectual aspects of our natures." It is true that Art 
and Manual Training are a part of the curriculum, but neverthe- 
less the bookish and academic phases seem to predominate. 



Organization of Program of Studies 65 

From the preceding it seems that the dominating principle by 
which the program of studies has taken place in England has been 
that of subjects of study. No apparent attempt has been made 
to recognize dominant interests and needs of groups of pupils and 
the selection of subject-matter based on these objectives. In 
other words it is the unifying and not the specialising function 
that the English stress. 

Curriculum Organization in the United States 

Early Manifestation of Differentiation in the United States. The 
attempt to solve the problems of the curriculum has had a much 
more varied history in the United States than in England. Amer- 
ican educators have given much greater attention to the elements 
of differentiation and diversification than have the English. 
This tendency was early manifested in the academy movement, 
Franklin's Academy being established with three schools, a Latin 
School, an English School, and a Mathematical School, to which 
was added later a Philosophical School. [94, 662.] A Classical 
department and an English department were in operation in 
the Phillips Academy at Andover in 1818. [94, 662.] These 
facts lead Inglis to state that "at least to the extent of somewhat 
separate classical and English departments and sometimes sepa- 
rate departments or schools for boys and girls, curriculum differ- 
entiation became common in the academy at a relatively early 
date." [94,662.] It is known that a very wide diversity of sub- 
jects was offered in the academies before 1850. Monroe [133, 58] 
mentions seventy- two subjects as having been reported to the 
regents of the University of the State of New York by the acad- 
emies in that state in 1837. To what extent the programs of 
these academies were to be found in actual practice and to what 
extent they were merely paper curriculum s is not known, but 
certainly the demand for a diversity of subjects was early recog- 
nized. 

With the establishment of the high school the "tendency 
toward differentiation was first manifested not by offering dif- 
ferent curriculums in the same school but by establishing separate 
schools for different groups of pupils." [94, 662.] In at least one 
state, Massachusetts, this tendency was checked by law very 
early in the high school movement, as the law of 1827 tended to 
establish public high schools in which somewhat differentiated 



66 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

curriculums were provided. [94, 663.] Separate courses were 
at first offered only for those pupils going and not going to college, 
or for boys and girls. It was much later that differentiation was 
made on the basis of the varying forms of higher education for 
which pupils were preparing or the varying types of postscholastic 
destinies of groups of pupils. 

Inglis finds [94, 677] that "in the history of the high schools 
during the past half century there is observable a tendency to 
swing alternately from the one extreme of rigidity in curriculum 
organization to the other extreme of almost entire flexibility and 
back again." It is certain that the differentiating function seems 
to have been less well developed fifty years ago than it was in the 
early period of the academy movement and much less so than it 
is today. Fifty years ago, when Eliot became president of 
Harvard only slight flexibility was offered even to upper classmen 
in college. At that time all students, even college students, were 
expected to pursue the same subjects, there being one rigid 
curriculum for all. Then followed as the result of an attempt to 
break away from this rigid uniformity a period of rapid develop- 
ment of the free elective system. Begun at Harvard under 
Ex-President Eliot it was first applied to juniors and seniors in 
college, then extended to freshmen and sophomores, then to the 
high school, and finally to the seventh and eighth grades of the 
elementary school. 

The movement toward the free election of studies was influ- 
enced by several distinct factors some within and some without 
the school. Without the school the industrial revolution de- 
manding a much more extensive division of labor ; the advance of 
scientific investigations, numerous inventions leading to labor- 
saving devices; increasing international relationships caused the 
introduction of many new subjects of study into the program of 
studies. The natural sciences, the modern languages, history 
and the social sciences and later the vocational and practical arts 
subjects were the most prominent among these. The question 
of the relative values of the various subjects of study, "what 
knowledge is of most worth?" developing into bitter depart- 
mental controversies, remained perhaps the most prominent 
question of the curriculum for a quarter of a century or more. 
These controversies ended in a more or less unstable truce, the 
basis of which was the free election of studies. 



Organization of Program of Studies 67 

If the question occurred to anyone as to why the program of 
studies should not undergo a comprehensive reorganization under 
a new conception of the function and meaning of secondary 
education in a democracy, a conception which should include the 
demands of contemporary life, industrial, economic and social, 
it was not given sufficient consideration to be put into practice. 
The result has been that the vying of the various subjects with 
each other for position and amount of pupil-time have virtually 
retarded curriculum development. "Most of the controversies 
and most of the constructive proposals for introductory science 
even in the high school have reflected the dominant special inter- 
est of the author in his specialty and reflected little curriculum 
thinking. The same thing in exaggerated form is evident in 
college curriculum framing. It has here practically always been 
a fight of departmental interests, with a resulting compromise." 

[97. 590.] 

Possibly because no one thought of a comprehensive reorgan- 
ization or because the older subjects were too firmly established 
in the program of studies to be displaced at once, educational 
reformers could not proceed according to such a program of 
comprehensive reorganization. They could only proceed by the 
addition of new subjects one by one, and whenever opportunity 
offered, by the elimination of those subjects that had outlived 
their usefulness. As the addition of new subjects was far more 
frequent than the elimination of old ones, the curriculum soon 
became overcrowded and confusion- in organization was the 
result. 

The extent to which differentiation and diversification has been 
carried in the United States can be seen from the following facts : 
Snedden mentions [182, 968-9] thirty-eight possible subjects for 
the junior high school. Calvin O. Davis [53, 63] found twenty- 
eight subjects in the high schools of Los Angeles that "are rarely 
found in other cities" in addition to the subjects ordinarily found 
elsewhere. He thinks that the scope of the work offered in Los 
Angeles "doubtless surpasses every other city in America." 
[53 > 63.] Every student has to begin with a choice among six 
different types of schools. Then "within each school the work is 
further differentiated and organized into parallel courses. The 
number of these courses is large aggregating in the six high schools, 
sixty-six. . . . Flexibility is further secured by permitting 



68 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

within each of the sixty-six courses and in each of the four years 
work outlined therein a goodly number of alternative choices." 

[53,63.? 

Aurner found [3a, 368] that in the State of Iowa taken as a 
whole the number of different curriculums in the various schools 
had developed "from a single unqualified rigid curriculum to 
three, five, eight, or even twelve lines of study." This is prob- 
ably a fair representation of the other states in the union. 

Some prominent superintendents think that there should be 
as many curriculums as there are children. For instance, Super- 
intendent Spaulding, Cleveland, Ohio, [217, 309] says that "in 
practice there should be as many ' courses ' (curriculums) as there 
are children." Newlon [141, 254] does not go so far as this but 
says that "in theory" such should be the case. It is very prob- 
able, however, that neither of these men really expect or wish 
that there be 883 curriculums for 883 pupils but that there might 
be a natural grouping of pupils into a dozen or so groups according 
to their predominant interests and needs. 

The rapid growth of democracy has found us unprepared for 
the corresponding educational obligations and we have not known 
what to do, what to include in the curriculum and what to omit, 
what to require of all and what to make elective, which students 
should take this subject and which should take that. We have 
not known whether or not it made any difference what a person 
studies so long as he studies something. American educators 
have become so enamoured at times of the movement toward an 
enriched curriculum that they have thrown the unifying elements 
of the curriculum to the winds and have completely lost sight 
of any kind of orderly sequence. Since we have not known what 
else to do the whole burden has at times been thrown upon the 
student and almost complete election has been allowed in some 
places. "One president of a great university recently went so 
far as to say publicly that he had no faith in the integrity of 
college faculty curriculum-making — that he'd rather trust the 
student's election." [97, 590.] The result of all this has been 
endless confusion and as Dewey states, "In the multitude of 
educations education is forgotten." [56, 288.] At least curric- 
ulum making has reached a stage where an effort to coordinate, 

1 "Course" is here used in the sense of "curriculum" defined at the begin- 
ning of this chapter. 



Organization of Program of Studies 69 

correlate and unify is urgently necessary, if the educational 
machinery is to function smoothly and harmoniously. 

The elective system in practice developed many serious defects, 
the main ones being that it provided no means by which sequence 
within each subject of study and unity among the several subjects 
of study might surely be attained. Such sequence and unity 
might be attained but there was no certainty of it. As a matter of 
fact when the individual pupil was considered there was no cer- 
tainty of anything. When the number of subjects announced in 
the printed programs was investigated it was apparent that it was 
possible for most students to secure both a rich and a unified 
program. When, however, in practice the actual curriculums of 
individual pupils were examined every conceivable kind of pro- 
gram was found from one extreme of a narrow specialisation and 
isolation, on the one hand, to a smattering of many subjects, on 
the other, both of which were equally fatal to the very idea of 
education. 

In finding a way out of the difficulty the United States at first 
hit upon differentiation by groups of studies, dividing the whole 
program of studies into some such groups, as, the language group, 
the natural science group, the social science group, etc. To secure 
both sequence and diversity Newlon proposes to require of all stu- 
dents, "in four distinct subjects or departments, two majors of 
three units each and two minors of two units each. This system, 
copied from the colleges, insures that the four years work done by 
the student will have organization and that he will pursue certain 
studies long enough to obtain mastery of them. It also insures 
that he will have that diversity of training which is so necessary to 
anything that is to be called culture." [141, 259-60.] 

The Committee of Ten recommended four curriculums, the 
Classical, the Latin-Scientific, the Modern Language and the 
English. The basis of differentiation was here plainly that of 
dominant subjects rather than the activities of life to which pupils 
would apply their training. The attack on the doctrine of formal 
discipline greatly accelerated the tendencies to inquire into the 
relative values of subjects, but it did not change the basis of dif- 
ferentiation. It was subject matter still. 

Differentiation by free election and differentiation by the group 
system had each been on the basis of subject matter rather than 
individual needs and post-scholastic destinies. However, the in- 



70 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

creasing knowledge of the importance of individual differences in 
education has caused the basis of differentiation to be changed 
from the former to the latter. That the requirements of individual 
differences may be met is the real reason for differentiated cur- 
riculums. The growing realization of the meaning of democracy 
has made it clear that "equally open to all " without carefully pro- 
viding for individual needs is not democratic. "Take it or leave 
it ' ' has driven many away from the schools and left some within 
the schools undeveloped and unprovided for. It has become 
evident that democracy demands not the same for all but that 
each individual child should, if possible, have that particular kind 
of training that will best develop his aptitudes and capacities, 
both individual and social. 

The New Basis for the Organization of the Curriculum. The 
philosophy of education in the United States is pragmatic, that is, 
it conceives certain ends which it thinks desirable to attain and at- 
tempts to find the necessary means of obtaining them. Conse- 
quently, American educators have discontinued the practice of 
describing educational aims in terms of mastery of subject matter; 
rather they tend at present to set up specific objectives which they 
think the secondary schools of the nation should attain. Thus 
the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 
sets up seven specific objectives which they hold "should consti- 
tute the principal aims of education." [42, 11.] These objectives 
are not expressed in terms of subject matter but in terms of con- 
crete social utilities. Subject matter is not disregarded, but 
mastery of subject matter is no longer an end in itself but is con- 
sidered merely as a means to the attainment of the objectives of 
education. The objectives which the Commission recommends 
are: Worthy home membership, vocation, citizenship, leisure, 
health, command of fundamental processes, ethical character. 
[42, 10-11.] 

The reason assigned for this mode of approach is as follows: 
[42, 27] "The objectives must determine the organization, or 
else the organization will determine the objectives. If the only 
basis upon which a high school is organized is that of the subjects 
of study, each department being devoted to some particular sub- 
ject, there will result an over-valuation of the importance of sub- 
jects as such, and the tendency will be for each teacher to regard 
his function as merely that of leading the pupils to master a partic- 



Organization of Program of Studies 71 

ular subject, rather than that of using the subjects of study and 
the activities of the school as means for achieving the objectives of 
education." 

In attaining the objectives mentioned above pupils may in many 
respects be treated alike. This is true to a considerable extent 
of worthy home membership, citizenship, health, command of 
fundamental processes, and ethical character. A pupil should 
have attainments in each of these aims whatever his vocation 
may be, but as soon as the "vocation" objective is accepted as a 
valid aim in secondary education it is at once realized that it is 
impossible to treat all pupils alike. Therefore, the American 
educators have recognized that both a "specialising" and a "uni- 
fying" function are necessary in secondary education. 1 

The Specialising Function in Secondary Education. In providing 
for specialisation American educators boldly depart from the 
tradition of the past and recognize that preparation for vocations 
is a valid aim in secondary education. They tend to make the 
vocational motive the basis of differentiation. "The basis of dif- 
ferentiation should be in the broad sense of the term vocational, 
says the Commission on Reorganization of Secondary Education, 
[42 , 22] but it does not forget the necessity of providing for other 
objectives than that of vocational efficiency. Inglis agrees [94, 
671] that "curriculum differentiation is determined primarily by 
the probable future activities of pupils, especially along vocational 
lines," but he also recognizes the "desirability of not anticipating 
too much the decision of vocational and other choices." [94, 679.] 
And Johnston says [97, 579]: "On general principles which I am 
prepared to defend I lay down the proposition that curriculum dif- 
ferentiation is necessary wherever possible in high schools, and 
that the basis for such differentiation must be the demands of the 
different groups of our high-school pupil bodies, these groups 
partially segregated on the basis of their different vocational needs 
and expectations." As the question of vocational differentiation 
is attracting so much attention at present a more extensive treat- 
ment will be given in the following chapter. 

Differentiation according to the new conception of curriculum 
organization is based on the demands of each of the different 



1 This is the terminology used by the Commission on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education. Inglis uses the terms "differentiation" and "inte- 
gration" respectively. 



72 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

groups of high school pupil bodies. The Commission on the Re- 
organization of Secondary Education states [42, 21]: "Second- 
ary education in the past has met the needs of only a few groups. 
The growing recognition that progress in our American democracy 
depends in no small measure upon adequate provision for speciali- 
sation in many fields is the chief cause leading to the present re- 
organization of secondary education. Only through attention to 
the needs of various groups of individuals as shown by aptitudes, 
abilities, and aspirations can the secondary school secure from 
each pupil his best efforts. The school must capitalize the 
dominant interest that each boy and girl has at the time and direct 
that interest as wisely as possible. This is the surest method by 
which hard and effective work may be obtained from each pupil. " 

Inglis [94, 677] is of similar opinion: "Individual differences 
among pupils in capacities, acquired abilities, interests, and 
futures are the primary factor determining variables in secondary- 
school studies. To ignore their existence and the character of 
their distribution is to come directly into conflict with nature. 
Nevertheless dominant differences only can be considered, since 
the effective and economical administration of curriculums de- 
mands that a sufficiently large group of pupils having somewhat 
similar capacities, abilities, interests, and probable futures be af- 
forded to justify the formation of classes for instruction in any 
subject. Within the limits of effective and economical administra- 
tion the number and kinds of variables introduced into secondary- 
school curriculums should be as large and diversified as possible. 
Any subject of study which meets the needs of a sufficiently large 
number of pupils to permit effective organization of classes and 
which possesses educational value is justified in the secondary 
school." 

For the old academic basis, Johnston thinks that [97, 579] "we 
must substitute the principle of designing courses and curriculums 
according to whether they have or do not have systematized in- 
formation and definite trainings. We must know, in a given case, 
which of these knowledges and trainings are requisite for and 
common to the life demands of the majority in each of the 
groups into which we can, for this curriculum purpose, break up 
our particular bodies of high-school pupils. . . . Many 
modern writers do not see this era of curriculum differentiation that 
is upon us." 



Organization of Program of Studies 73 

It is probable that Spaulding and Newlon who were quoted 
above to the effect that there should be as many curriculums as 
there are pupils do not really mean that there should be a separate 
and distinct curriculum for each pupil but that each pupil should 
have the opportunity of pursuing without serious limitations the 
lines of study that seem best adapted to his particular interests 
and aptitudes. It is only a question of providing for individual 
differences. In practice, even if their ideal should literally be 
carried into effect many of these curriculums would doubtless be 
identical and pupils would be grouped according to certain 
dominant interests. In fact, Spaulding has more recently said: 
[190, 563] "We are hearing a good deal in these days about the 
importance of morale in our industrial and civic life and we are 
noting the steps taken to produce morale. It means common 
knowledge about certain things, common ideals, and common 
purposes." [Cf. 97, 587.] 

Newlon also describes his plan in such a way that one surmises 
that he does not think that absolute differentiation for all pupils 
would be desirable. "It was decided," he says [141, 259], "that 
there were three large groups of students in the high school whose 
needs must be met by the program of studies ; the college prepara- 
tory group, the vocational group, and that large group of students 
that would not enter college and did not for good reasons care to 
prepare for definite vocations, but desired a general liberal arts 
training in the high school." 

Groups into Which High School Pupil Bodies are Divided. The 
groups into which high school pupils may be divided as mentioned 
by Newlon were further subdivided and for each group a special 
curriculum was devised. One was to prepare for college and one 
for normal school. ' ' Likewise a number of vocational curriculums 
was worked out, such as the household arts, including the sewing 
and cooking curriculums; the mechanic arts, including the wood- 
working and the iron working curriculums; the commercial in- 
cluding the stenographic and the book-keeping curriculums; the 
music curriculum; the fine arts curriculum; the agriculture curric- 
ulum, and the teacher training curriculum. The general curric- 
ulum, poorly named perhaps, was planned for those students who 
do not care to enroll in any of the vocational curriculums and do 
not care to take the mathematics or languages required in the 
college preparatory curriculums. My experience in administer- 



74 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

ing the group system has convinced me that this is a very real and 
definite student group. In all fifteen curriculums choices were 
offered the students." 

The Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 
mentions a similar list, though it does not pretend to make its list 
complete. It mentions "agricultural, business, clerical, industrial, 
fine-arts, and household-arts curriculums." [42,22.] "Provision 
should be made also," states the Commission, "for those having 
distinctively academic interests and needs." 

Inglis would accept such a grouping of pupils, it seems, but he 
makes also a number of groups on another basis, that of the 
probable stay of the pupil in school. "It must be recognized," he 
says, "that the factor of elimination vitally affects the organiza- 
tion of curriculums in two important respects: (a) provision 
must be made by the organization of flexible curriculums, the 
introduction of varied forms of education, and the proper ad- 
ministration of the diagnostic function, which will encourage 
continuance in the secondary school longer of pupils who now 
leave school in large numbers ; (b) provision must be made for an 
education as effective as possible, as appropriate as possible, and 
as well rounded-out as possible for pupils who must leave school 
before the completion of the course." [94, 672.] 

Inglis' complete classification includes the following [94, 672-4]: 
1 . Those who will continue their education beyond the secondary 
school in some higher institution. 2. Those who will complete 
the secondary school course but close their formal education at 
that point. 3. Those who remain in school until the close of the 
eleventh grade but who leave school at that point. 4. Those who 
remain in school through the tenth grade but who leave at that 
point. 5. Those who at present receive but one year (or less) of 
high-school education. 6. Where the junior-senior high school 
organization is in operation there must be considered in the organ- 
ization of curriculums the fact that about two fifths of the pupils 
entering the seventh grade never proceed (under present condi- 
tions) as far as the ninth grade. Curriculums must be organ- 
ized for the purpose of retaining those pupils at least through 
the ninth grade and for the purpose of providing curriculums as 
effective as possible for those who must leave at the close of 
the junior high school. 

Flexibility in the Junior High School; Rigidity in the Senior High 



Organization of Program of Studies 75 

School. That pupils may not rush prematurely into specialisation 
and that they may select as wisely as possible their lines of special- 
isation when they do decide, Inglis proposes that curriculum or- 
ganization in the junior high school should be characterized by a 
high degree of flexibility with a corresponding degree of rigidity in 
the senior high school. "All things considered," he says [94, 679], 
"it would appear to be reasonable that curriculums should be 
characterized by a relatively high degree of flexibility in the early 
grades of the secondary school, by a relatively high degree of 
rigidity in the later grades, and by a gradual transition from the 
one status to the other. Such a practice would recognize in the 
early grades of the secondary school (a) the desirability of a 
relatively wide range of subject matter favorable to educational 
diagnosis, prognosis, and guidance — themselves conducive to the 
possibility of greater definiteness in later work; (b) the desirabil- 
ity of not anticipating too much the decision of vocational or other 
choices ; and (c) the desirabililty of permitting as much adaptation 
to individual differences as may be practicable. At the same time 
it would recognize in the later grades of the school the desirability 
of definitely determined vocational work, the necessity for special- 
isation and concentration along definite lines, and definite pro- 
paedeutic training for those whose education will continue beyond 
the secondary school. It would further recognize that in the later 
grades of the secondary school groups of pupils may more readily 
be classified and their special needs determined." 

The Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 
agree that the early years should be exploratory in nature. "In 
the seventh year," it says [42, 23-24], "that is the first year of the 
junior high school, the pupil should not be required to choose at 
the outset the field to which he will devote himself. For those 
who do not at this time have a definite purpose, opportunity 
should be given to gain some experience with several significant 
types of work, such as some form of industrial arts, gardening or 
other agricultural activity, typewriting or problems drawn from 
business, household arts for girls, and for at least a part of the 
pupils some work in a foreign language. It may be found feasible 
to organize several such subjects or projects into short units and 
to arrange the schedule so that every pupil may take several of 
them. The work thus offered may and should be of real educa- 
tional value, in addition to its exploratory value." 



76 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

We have already seen that during the latter part of the nine- 
teenth century curriculums were rather loosely administered and 
in some cases all lines of curriculum demarcation were practically 
nominal. Inglis finds [94, 677-8] that "with the recent change in 
the basis of curriculum differentiations from subject-matter to in- 
dividual needs and post-scholastic destinies there has been de- 
veloped a tendency to organize rather definitely separated curric- 
ulums which permit a relatively small amount of overlapping or 
cross-cutting." 

Aurner [3a, 369] found a wide diversity of practice with regard 
to rigidity and flexibility in Iowa. Although in some places there 
was much "that was elective," in others " the different groups were 
elective, but within each group little that was elective." He cites 
two school systems as extremes: "At Albia it is noted that only 
ten credits 1 were required — six in English and four in mathematics 
— in 191 1, the remaining twenty- two being wholly elective. On 
the other hand, an announcement from Boone shows requirements 
varying from eleven to twenty-five credits depending upon the 
course pursued, there being five courses as follows: the Latin 
course, twenty-five credits required ; the scientific course, twenty- 
five; the history course, twenty-four credits; the commercial 
course, twenty-one credits." 

Educational Guidance. It is clear that without advice in select- 
ing curriculums the pupil would be guided to a large extent by his 
likes and dislikes, or the likes and dislikes of another, sometimes 
mere whims in either case. Even if the pupil alone did sincerely 
try to select his curriculum wisely he might fail due to insufficient 
knowledge of his own aptitudes and needs, or of the nature of the 
subjects of study which constitute his possibilities of selection. 
For this reason, those who advocate the new basis of curriculum 
organization propose that there shall be a system of educational 
guidance as an integral part of the organization. This guidance 
consists of two parts, (a) a wide variety of contacts and experi- 
ences, (b) advice and council from older people, parents and 
teachers. "All educational guidance," says Inglis [94, 717], "is 
primarily and fundamentally a matter of providing a wide variety 
of educational contacts and experiences so organized as to meet 
the needs of individual differences and to afford a basis of actual 



1 "Credit" is here equivalent to one subject pursued for one semester, five 
hours a week. 



Organization of Program of Studies 77 

experience for the intelligent selection of vocation and avocation, 
for the determination of moral and social conduct, and for the wise 
choice of educational offerings. The older conception of guidance 
involved primarily a system of educational advice (in some cases 
what practically amounted to educational compulsion) with 
particular reference to the- selection of a vocation. The newer 
conception of guidance involves primarily a system of educational 
experiences designed to permit the pupil to explore, try out, and 
thus gain some understanding of his own capacities, aptitudes, and 
interests, to open up to the pupil's view the opportunities of life 
and of education, and, as far as possible, to make him acquainted 
with the privileges, demands, and responsibilities of life in its 
various phases, vocational and avocational, social, civic, and 
moral. Only when such a basis of experience is provided can any 
system of guidance by advice be safe or effective." 

The Commission on Reorganization of Secondary Education ac- 
cepts this position and adds [42,2i]that the pupil's decision should 
not be imposed on him by others. " Especially in the junior high 
school the pupil should have a variety of experiences and contacts 
in order that he may explore his own capacities and aptitudes. 
Through a system of educational supervision or guidance he 
should be helped to determine his education and his vocation. 
These decisions should not be imposed upon him by others." 
Educational guidance is the crux of the whole program of dif- 
ferentiated curriculums. There is no doubt that with an enriched 
curriculum and expert guidance individual differences may much 
more effectively be cared for, but when guidance breaks down 
there is no telling what may happen. This was the chief defect 
of the elective system, and it will be the chief defect of any 
system. 

The Unifying Function in Secondary Education. American 
educators recognize a unifying function as well as a specialising 
function. They by no means think that the differentiating func- 
tion should comprise the whole of the field of secondary education. 
"With increasing specialisation in any society comes a correspond- 
ing necessity for increased attention to unification. So in the 
secondary school, increased attention to specialisation calls for 
more purposeful plans for unification. When there was but little 
differentiation in the work within the secondary school, and the 
pupils in attendance were less diversified as to their heredity and 



78 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

interests, social unification in the full sense of the term could not 
take place." [42, 23.] The Commission, therefore, consider 
that specialisation and unification are supplementary functions 
and by no means antagonistic to each other, but that each pro- 
motes the other. 

The Commission thinks that the United States is especially in 
need of a unifying function because of its diversity of racial 
stocks. "In some countries a common heredity, a strongly cen- 
tralized government and an established religion contribute to 
social solidarity. In America, racial stocks are widely diversified, 
various forms of social heredity come into conflict, differing reli- 
gious beliefs do not always make for unification, and the members 
of different vocations often fail to recognize the interests that they 
have in common with others. The school is the one agency that 
may be controlled definitely and consciously by our democracy 
for the purpose of unifying its people. In this process the second- 
ary school must play an important part because the elementary 
school with its immature pupils cannot alone develop the common 
knowledge, common ideals, and common interests essential to 
American democracy. Furthermore, children of immigrant 
parents attend the secondary school in large and increasing num- 
bers ; secondary education comes at a stage in the development of 
boys and girls when social interests develop rapidly ; and from the 
secondary school the majority of pupils pass directly into partici- 
pation in the activities of our society." [42, 22-23.] 

Provision for unification may be made in several ways, (a) 
There may be certain studies to be taken by all or nearly all pupils. 
These are called constants or common elements or taken altogether 
the Core curriculum, and "should be determined mainly by the 
objectives of health, command of fundamental processes, worthy 
home membership, citizenship and ethical character." [42, 23.] 
Whatever differentiation takes place should be over and above 
these constants. 

Inglis suggests [94, 676] the following as constants in the cur- 
riculum of the secondary school, "(a) English throughout the 
junior and senior high schools; (b) some social science in each 
grade of the junior and senior high schools; (c) health study 
throughout the junior high school in some form, physical training 
through exercise in all grades of the secondary school ; (d) ' general 
science' in the junior high school; musical appreciation in the 



Organization of Program of Studies 79 

junior high school. These should be considered as irreducible 
minima in the group of constants." 

To secure both sequence and diversity Newlon proposes to re- 
quire of all students " three years of English, one year of medieval 
and modern history, one-half year of civics or one year of Ameri- 
can history, one year of science, one-half year of physical educa- 
tion, and one half year chorus." [141, 260.] 

From the foregoing it can be seen that the American plan of 
curriculum organization is made up of three parts, (a) Constants, 
to be taken by all or nearly all pupils, (b) Curriculum variables, 
peculiar to a curriculum or to a group of related curriculums. (c) 
Free electives, to be taken by pupils in accordance with individual 
aptitudes or special interests, generally of a nonvocational nature. 
[42, 23.] 

Minimum Essentials. There is a group of educators in the 
United States, however, of whom Bagley seems to be the chief 
spokesman who think, if anything, this overlapping of curriculums 
does not go far enough, and the uniformity which it secures "will 
be determined merely by convenience, not by basic and funda- 
mental principles." [7, 959.] Consequently, this school of 
educators advocates a scheme by which the "common elements" 
or "minimum essentials" shall constitute the basis on which to 
build a curriculum. Whatever can be accomplished more than 
this may be open to free election, but first and foremost the mini- 
mum essentials should be provided for. 

Bagley thinks that it makes a difference whether all the people 
of the country can think together and act together. Consequently , 
common elements are not only justified but they are demanded, 
"by social needs, and particularly by the needs of a democracy." 
[6, December, 1914.] For "democracy depends upon social 
solidarity, — it depends upon a certain community of ideas, stand- 
ards, ideals, and aspirations among all members of the democratic 
society, and it is this necessity that lies at the basis of uniformity 
in the program of a democratic system." [6, December, 19 14.] 

It may be said that the fundamental tenets of those who advo- 
cate common elements are summed up in the words, "common ideas, 
standards, ideals, and aspirations." Bagley realizes that both dif- 
ferentiation and unity should be secured but he thinks that desir- 
able differentiation will be promoted by intelligent uniformity. 
[6, December, 1914.] 



80 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Judd, in a joint article with Bagley, agrees with these main 
principles [101, 318]. "It is the business of a democratic society 
to see to it that the materials of thought which are presented to 
children shall contain enough common elements so that the think- 
ing of the community as a whole shall be guided along similar 
lines. A school which gives to one class of children one set of ideas 
and ideals and to another class an entirely different set of ideas 
and ideals will make for social distinctions that are dangerous in a 
democracy. On the other hand, a course of study which knows no 
variations is quite as dangerous in a democracy as the stratifying 
course." 

The system advocated by Bagley does not seem very dissimilar 
from that of Inglis and the Commission on Reorganization of 
Secondary Education. Perhaps the sole difference is in point of 
emphasis. One group emphasizes the differentiating function, the 
other the unifying function. 

There are still other indications than those already mentioned 
that the United States is looking more toward sequence and unity 
than in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Some of these 
may be mentioned. There are certain courses of recent develop- 
ment in which the unifying purpose is stressed. An instance of 
this is the recent action of the Columbia University Faculty in 
establishing a composite course of the elements of the social science 
group. This course will consist of parts of sociology, political 
science, history and economics intended as a general information 
course. It will be a five-hours a week course throughout the year 
and required of all freshmen. It is said that other departments in 
Columbia are contemplating similar rearrangement. It has been 
recognized that a system in which every teacher thinks that his 
subject is of prime importance and either cares nothing for the 
subjects of the other teachers or at least makes no effort to 
strengthen the relation between his department and others — in 
such a system the education of the student is lost sight of and 
may become a mere patchwork, uncoordinated and incom- 
plete. 

This movement is paralleled in the high school by the strong 
movement toward general science, unified mathematics, and the 
proposed unit courses in social science. For instance, a course 
for high school pupils similar to the course just referred to in 
Columbia has been proposed. [114, 37-41.] This course called 



Organization of Program of Studies 81 

Study of Nations "should be taken by all and not offered merely 
as an elective." [114, 39.] 

The reorganization of the early science courses is taking place, a 
"general" course being given in which the unifying element is 
human life itself and the relation of science to it. The courses at 
first will not be divided off into water-tight compartments, as in 
the past. The proposed courses in "unified" mathematics have 
the same purpose, and utilize whatever portions of the whole 
field of mathematics that serve this purpose, whenever the situa- 
tion demands. 

Recent curriculum discussions especially caused by the publica- 
tion of Flexner's "The Modern School" show a tendency toward 
the limitation of subjects, or at least toward the formation of 
groups of subjects which are to constitute the curriculum for a 
liberally educated man. Mr. Flexner himself proposed "four 
main fields — science, industry, civics, and aesthetics." Mr. 
West, one of Mr. Flexner's most outspoken opponents, has men- 
tioned three, the world of nature, the world of man, and the world 
of the intellect. In the first main field would be science and 
mathematics; in the second, history, civics, and economics; in the 
third, language and philosophy. [216a, 30-32.] President Butler 
has mentioned three that are similar to those of Mr. West. [33, 
64-79.] It is true that each of these may be very greatly sub- 
divided but from the content one gathers that every pupil should 
have a certain amount of training in each of these fields which is 
similar to the group system previously discussed. 

From the purely philosophic side, social efficiency the professed 
aim of a great majority of educational thinkers at present implies 
that cooperation, communication and shared activites are looming 
large in educational philosophy, and hence narrow individualism 
is breaking down. This may mean that collectivism, or working 
together, is becoming more prominent in our educational theory. 
This is one fundamental reason why constants or common ele- 
ments are insisted on so strongly by certain educational writers. 
"The fundamental issue," says Bagley [7, 964-5], "in this matter 
of 'differentiation' versus 'common elements,' then, is the issue 
between individualism and collectivism. . . . Many are 
asking whether in our own country we have not gone too far in the 
direction of individualism." 



82 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Conclusions 

The English plan of curriculum organization eliminates for 
them certain outstanding problems which are apparent in Ameri- 
can education. In the first place, no extensive plan of differen- 
tiated curriculums is necessary as general education is intended. 
It should be remembered that the English plan to secure a certain 
kind of diversity by a variety of schools. The English aim is to 
develop strength of character and not to attain certain objectives. 
In the second place, it settles the question of early vocational 
training by deferring it, or at least, by shifting the responsibility 
to other schools or to the industries themselves. Preparation for 
those vocations that require little technical and scientific training 
will probably be deferred till the worker enters upon his career. 
For those that require technical and scientific training technical 
schools are provided. 

In both cases American opinion is different. Many specific 
objectives should be set up, a number of which can be attained 
by all pupils, but at the same time so diverse that an extensive 
plan of differentiation is necessary. In the second place, the 
United States unlike England considers vocational training even 
in the junior high school as a worthy and legitimate purpose for 
some pupils, especially those not going to higher institutions. It 
is a question as to whether the vocational aim should dominate a 
pupil's program of studies, in the high school period, even if the 
pupil is not going on to advanced institutions. The English 
would answer in the negative but American opinion seems to be 
divided. There is a strong feeling in the United States that un- 
less the vocational appeal be made there will be many pupils lost 
to any kind of education whatsoever. A fuller discussion of the 
vocational tendency is given in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER IV 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

The differentiation of curriculums raises the question as to 
what extent vocational preparation should influence the content 
of the curriculum. It was shown in the preceding chapter that 
England proposes no specialisation of any kind before the age of 
sixteen, and particularly no specialisation before that age for 
vocational purposes. In America, on the other hand, since the 
policy is to reach every pupil and to give that pupil the kind of 
education that fosters his own best development, vocational 
education has been put forward as a possible means of attaining 
these ends and accordingly it is proposed to give at least a part 
of this preparation in the regularly established secondary schools. 
The extent, however, to which it should be given is far from 
settled. 

Widespread Vocational Education Expected by 
Some Writers 

Some American writers are expecting a marked increase in voca- 
tional education within the secondary schools in the United 
States in the near future. Judd and Bagley imply a decided 
vocational tendency when they say [4,32 1] : 

There has been a tendency in recent educational discussions to assume 
that boys and girls always find school lessons formal and stupid unless they 
see clearly how these lessons may be made to bear upon the earning of 
money. This tendency toward economic determinism in educational 
theory is most unfortunate. 

In a later article [99, 156] Judd finds that industrial education 
is making "headway at an astonishing rate" ; that the vocational 
people, — such as the American Manufacturers Association, the 
National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, and 
the Federal Board of Vocational Education, — "are carrying their 
point at state capitol after state capitol," while "the liberal-arts 
minds are working without unified command, without adequate 
comprehension of the strength of the enemy, and without any 

83 



84 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

clear notion of how to prepare." [99, 155-6.] The following is a 
still stronger statement : 

There is today in our American schools throughout, a practically uni- 
versal stampede away from what the older generation called the "humani- 
ties," and toward the "realien," — toward getting "results." Today the 
minor educationists are frank followers of the vociferous vocational guides, 
who quite simply solve the whole problem of the scheme and scope of 
education, by reference to the Spartan king, who, on being questioned 
as to what a boy's education should be, replied, "I suppose he should 
learn as a boy, the things he would be expected to do as a man." [161, 
369-] 

Other writers go even further than this and express the fear 
that every kind of liberal education everywhere is in danger of 
being wiped out. It is asked whether "the vast tide of industrial 
democracy, surging irresistibly towards greater socialization of 
economic goods and increased equalization of economic opportu- 
nity will totally engulf the liberalizing spiritual forces." [119, 422.] 
President Butler is of the opinion that "the moral and spiritual 
values have been ground between the upper and nether millstones 
of a psychology without a soul and an economics with no vision 
beyond material gain" [33, 65] and some writers go even so far as 
to say that such teachings as those of Professor Dewey are based 
on a "narrow utilitarianism which would give delight to the ene- 
mies of literary or historical, or indeed of liberal studies every- 
where." [31,429.] 

Some writers, therefore, seem to conceive the issue to be an 
exclusive choice between vocational education on the one hand, 
and literary subjects on the other. They seem to think that the 
curriculum must be dominated by either the one or the other. 
They fail or refuse to recognize any other alternative than classics 
or vocational education. For instance, the American Academy of 
Arts and Letters makes the issue squarely literary vs. vocational. 
In a resolution recently passed by this Academy [172, December 
28, 1918, p. 775] the study of Latin and "wherever practical of 
Greek," is encouraged, both in secondary schools and in colleges, 
and also "the scientific study of classical antiquity in the gradu- 
ate schools of our universities." The reason for passing such a 
resolution was that "the triumph of the opposite policies will 
lower the intellectual and esthetic standards of our secondary 
schools," and "will convert into a mere technical school or voca- 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 85 

tional school the liberalizing and elevating American college." 
Whether or not there is any justification for the fear of an exclu- 
sive domination of secondary education by vocational education 
depends upon the meaning one gives to the term vocational edu- 
cation. If a break with tradition means vocational education, 
as the preceding quotation seems to imply, it is probably true 
that vocational education is destined to become predominant in 
secondary education, as it seems that modification and reorgani- 
zation of ideals and practices hitherto prevailing in secondary 
education is the order of the day. However, if vocational educa- 
tion means as it is usually taken to mean, "any education, and 
only that education, the primary purpose of which is to prepare 
an individual for the successful pursuit of a recognized vocation," 
t 1 ^, 751] there is considerable doubt whether there is a very 
great probability of vocational education occupying a predomi- 
nant place in the secondary curriculum in the near future. 

The Opposing Forces in the Matter of Vocational 

Education 

From the preceding discussion it is apparent that there are two 
camps as regards this problem of vocational education, those for 
and those against. The group that favors vocational education 
may as Dewey points out be further subdivided. There are 
two mighty and opposing forces concealed within the movement 
for vocational education, he says [59, 334], "one which would 
utilize the public schools primarily to turn out more efficient 
laborers in the present economic regime; the other which would 
utilize all the resources of public education to equip individuals 
to control their own future economic careers, and thus help on 
such a reorganization of industry as will change it from a feudalis- 
ts to a democratic order." 

Failure to recognize these two opposing forces within the voca- 
tional group itself has caused much confusion in educational dis- 
cussions. It is the first of these groups and not the second that 
opponents of vocational education intend to condemn so heartily, 
but failing to make a distinction between the two, they have 
deplored vocational education of every kind. The second carries 
with it no necessary antagonism to education in its highest and 
best sense. It is itself primarily educative in intent. 



86 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Facts That Seem to Favor a Predominance of Vocational 

Education 

There are undoubtedly certain facts which when viewed alone 
tend to support the belief that vocational education of the first 
type is on the point of dominating the education of adolescents in 
the United States. First, vocational education is the only phase 
of secondary education supported by grants from the federal 
government. This is accomplished through the Smith-Hughes 
Act. The object of this Act is to equip men and women to work 
successfully in a trade or in' home-making and the funds may be 
used for three purposes only : (a) Salaries of teachers, supervisors, 
or directors of agricultural education; (b) salaries of teachers of 
trades, industrial subjects, and home economics; (c) the training 
of teachers of agriculture, home economics, and vocational sub- 
jects. Not more than 20 per cent of the pupil's time may be de- 
voted to subjects other than vocational. The friends of vocational 
education are hoping that this Act will give a great impetus to 
their cause. Since the bill carries an annual appropriation of 
$7,500,000 from the federal government, which amount is to be 
duplicated by states receiving these grants, it may eventually 
be of sufficient influence to place vocational education in a 
dominant place in the secondary school. This remains to be seen. 

A second possible indication that vocational education is in 
danger of dominating secondary education is the fact that certain 
associations are making a strong plea for vocational education. 
Judd describes their activities as follows [99, 155]: 

The American Manufacturers' Association has had for some years past 
an education committee which has striven to build up in this country a 
new type of school — one absolutely divorced from the school that now 
exists. An organization called the National Society for the Promotion of 
Industrial Education has been aiding the American Manufacturers' 
Association. This society employed a secretary whose salary was paid 
by subscription, not by membership fees, and whose duty it was to in- 
fluence state legislatures and Congress to enact laws providing for voca- 
tional courses on a liberal scale. Both the organizations mentioned have 
steadily refused to trust the schoolmaster of the traditional school. Both 
organizations have been outspoken in the charge that ordinary school 
teachers are conservatives to the point of stupidity, bigoted and inexperi- 
enced, blind to the needs of society and ignorant of the demands made by 
children's natures. 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 87 

A third indication of a vocational tendency is the attitude of 
certain schoolmen towards it. One such states that he "believes 
staunchly- in vocational education to a finish for everybody." 
[116, 11.] President Wilcox, formerly of the New York School 
Board, is quoted as saying that "what they ought to be learning in 
their schools is the cheapest way of getting their potatoes to the 
Chicago market" [31, 243]; and Paul Kreutzpointer, Altoona, 
Pa., [115, 103] deplores the fact that "the Smith-Hughes Act does 
not recognize the work of the junior high school as the vocational 
preparatory school of the future." Dr. Prosser of the Federal 
Vocational Education Board is of the opinion that [172, Sep- 
tember 7, 191 8, p. 179] "between the age of fourteen and 
twenty-one every young person who remains in school should 
receive under federal supervision, at least a year's training in a 
recognized vocation. . . . So far as possible this training should 
be given as a part of school or college training." Those who are 
not in full-time attendance at a secondary school should be given 
part-time instruction. 

These are the only statements out of about seventy gleaned 
from the reading in the investigation that could at all be said to 
favor vocational education for everybody and it is plain from the 
last statement that the writer does not expect that vocational 
education shall occupy a major part of the time of the secondary 
school. The following statement [118, 103] although not ex- 
clusively vocational in intent still goes much further than most 
people would be willing to follow. 

But I cannot refrain from expressing the opinion that inasmuch as 74 
per cent of the pupils in the United States do not reach the high school, 
sanity in industrial training will demand that it strike its roots deep down 
into the elementary school and that the result will be not only to improve 
the opportunities for children to adjust themselves to the demands of our 
present industrial situation but to give them a more genuine culture than 
is now possible in most public school systems. The purpose of the work 
which we call pre vocational, which we occasionally find in the upper grades 
of the elementary school, will ever be the development of character, intel- 
ligence, and economic efficiency, and there is no genuine culture which 
lacks either one of these elements. 

Later in the same article [118, 112] Leavitt says: "In fact, 
one might almost say that sanity in secondary education demands 
that the vocational motive, broadly speaking, be made dominant 



"88 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

throughout all courses and in nearly all subjects." This state- 
ment needs to be discounted somewhat, however, because Leavitt 
in speaking of The Boston Public Latin School intimates that it is 
dominated by a vocational motive because preparation for college 
is its primary purpose. If the vocational motive is as broad as 
this, it would perhaps be better to say that secondary education 
should in the broad sense be specifically designed to meet genuine 
.life purposes. Still it seems from what is said that Leavitt favors 
a secondary education which is to a large extent vocational in 
purpose, using the term with its usual connotation. 

It was claimed above that today "the minor educationists are 
frank followers of the vociferous vocational guides," and there is 
evidence to indicate that certain administrators use the voca- 
tional motive as a bid for patronage. For instance, Aurner 
[3a, 371-2] found that in some of the schools of Iowa a definite 
vocational or professional purpose dominated each curriculum. 
Of course it was to be expected that the commercial and indus- 
trial curriculums would have definite vocations more or less in 
mind but at Oskaloosa five curriculums were found, "the first of 
which was described under the title of Course A which it is said 
leads to the speaking and writing professions. In this course the 
major subjects are language, literature and history." Each of 
the other courses had special professions in mind. Course B di- 
rects attention to the scientific professions. "Course C is a gen- 
eral plan in which commercial subjects form the majors." Course 
D is the normal course and Course E is the agricultural course. 
Ascribing vocational purposes to these various courses, especially 
to the first two, seems, however, to be the merest camouflage and 
manoeuvering for the support of the layman with whom the voca- 
tional appeal is strong and hence a temptation to the adminis- 
trator. 

The Position of the Commission on the Reorganization of Second- 
ary Education. A possible interpretation of the position of the 
Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education 
indicates a favorable attitude to the first kind of vocational edu- 
cation described by Dewey (above p. 85). They insist under 
the heading, "the subordination of deferred values," [42, 17] that 

Many subjects are now so organized as to be of little value unless the 
pupil studies them for several years. Since a large proportion of pupils 
leave school in each of the successive years, each subject should be so or- 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 89 

ganized that the first year of work will be of definite value to those who go 
no further; and this principle should be applied to the work of each year. 
Courses planned in accordance with this principle will deal with the simpler 
aspects, or those of more direct application, in the earlier years and will 
defer the refinements to later years when these can be better appreciated. 
The course as a whole will then be better adapted to the needs both of 
those who continue and of those who drop out of school. 

When it is said that the "simpler aspects" should be given first 
this is only good common sense, in accord with the age old pre- 
cept "from the simple to the complex." However, when it is 
added "or those of more direct application" the English educa- 
tors and many Americans would at once infer that this applies to 
a direct preparation for vocational competency. This is a pos- 
sible inference though it may not be the one intended. 

Further indications that this may be the correct interpreta- 
tion, are the fact that Vocation is named as one of seven same ob- 
jectives, which might indicate that the Commission considers it an 
end within itself rather than a means to an end. Especially is 
this true when it is stated [42, 22] : 

The work of the senior high school should be organized into differentiated 
curriculums. The range of such curriculums should be as wide as the 
school can offer effectively. The basis of differentiation should be, in the 
broad sense of the term, vocational, thus justifying the names commonly 
given, such as agricultural, business, clerical, industrial, fine-arts, and 
household arts curriculums. Provision should be made also for those 
having distinctively academic interests and needs. 

This position is still further strengthened when the Commission 
encouraging an early choice, "at least tentatively, of some field 
of human endeavor for special consideration," [42, 18] state that 
"the field chosen will be for some as sharply defined as a specific 
trade; for others, it will be but the preliminary choice of a wider 
domain within which a narrower choice will later be made." 
[42, 18.] "Vocation as an objective requires that many pupils 
devote much of their time to specific preparation for a definite 
trade or occupation, and that some pursue studies that serve as a 
basis for advanced work in higher institutions." When it is 
said that "many should devote much of their time to specific 
preparation for a definite trade or occupation," while only "some 
pursue studies that serve as a basis for advanced work in higher 
institutions" it would seem that the emphasis is on vocational 



90 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

preparation. Finally, it is stated that "pupils who will probably 
enter industry at the end of the ninth grade may well give as much 
as two-thirds of their time to vocational preparation, but they 
must not be permitted to neglect preparation for citizenship and 
the worthy use of leisure." [42, 24.] When all these statements 
are made at various places in the report one is easily led to believe 
that the Commission to a large extent has direct preparation of 
pupils for vocations in mind. There is, however, another possible 
interpretation of the position of the Commission which will be 
given immediately. 

The preceding discussion is the strongest evidence that could 
be found of a sentiment for a predominant form of vocational 
education in the secondary schools. A more widely prevalent 
view is that vocational education should be only one phase of 
secondary education. 

This is certainly a possible interpretation of the position of the 
Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education. 
They admit vocational education as a part of general education, 
but admit it in the early stages of the secondary period only under 
sufferance and then merely to hold the pupils. They feel that it 
is better for even this early education to be part vocational and 
part general or liberal than to be neither ; which would be the case 
if the pupils were not in school. It is even better, they think, to 
teach vocational competency altogether than to teach nothing at 
all, and to teach it honestly rather than to permit it to be taught 
where the chief concern is private gain or exploitation of the pupil. 
That the public schools may, therefore, properly care for those 
students who would likely attend private business schools, many 
of which are notoriously inefficient, the Commission is willing that 
vocational education be established as a regular part of the pro- 
gram of studies in the public secondary schools. In other words, 
so long as the social order is as it is, and a service can be rendered 
to certain pupils by vocational education, rather than lose them 
the democratic secondary school, which must contemplate all 
adolescents, should offer vocational studies. 

This line of argument seems to be consistent with the following 
from the "Cardinal Principles" [42, 17]: "The number of years 
that pupils continue in school beyond the compulsory school age 
depends in large measure upon the degree to which they and their 
parents realize that school work is worth while for them and that 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 91 

they are succeeding in it. Probably in most communities doubt 
regarding the value of the work offered causes more pupils to leave 
school than economic necessity. Consequently, it is important 
that the work of each pupil should be so presented as to convince 
him and his parents of its real value." 

A further aim is that after the pupil has been kept in school he 
may find his own best development through his vocation. "The 
purpose of democracy," says the Commission [42, 9], 

is so to organize society that each member may develop his personality 
primarily through activities designed for the well being of his fellow mem- 
bers and of society as a whole. 

This ideal demands that human activities be placed upon a high level 
of efficiency; that to this efficiency be added an appreciation of the signifi- 
cance of these activities and loyalty to the best ideals involved ; and that 
the individual choose that vocation and those forms of social service in 
which his personality may develop and become most effective. For the 
achievement of these ends democracy must place chief reliance upon 
education. 

Consequently, education in a democracy, both within and without the 
school, should develop in each individual the knowledge, interests, ideals, 
habits, and powers whereby he will find his place and use that place to 
shape both himself and society toward ever nobler ends. 

This high ideal is also evident in the way in which the pupil 
is encouraged to make his choice of vocation. 

"The pupil should be assisted ordinarily at about 12 or 13 years of age 
to begin a preliminary survey of the activities of adult life and of his own 
aptitudes in connection therewith, so that he may choose, at least tenta- 
tively, some field of human endeavor for special consideration. Follow- 
ing the period of preliminary survey and provisional choice, he should ac- 
quire a more intimate knowledge of the field chosen, including therewith 
an appreciation of its social significance." [42, 18.] 

Again it is said [42, 23]: "In the seventh year, that is, the first year of 
the junior high school, the pupil should not be required to choose at the 
outset the field to which he will devote himself. For those who do not at 
this time have a definite purpose, opportunity should be given to gain some 
experience with several different types of work, such as some form of in- 
dustrial arts, gardening or other agricultural activity, typewriting or 
problems drawn from business, household arts for girls, and for at least a 
part of the pupils some work in foreign language." 

The commission thinks that vocational education should accomplish 
more than mere vocational competency. "Vocational education should 



92 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

equip the individual to secure a livelihood for himself and those dependent 
on him to serve society well through his vocation, to maintain the right 
relationships toward his fellow workers and society, and, as far as possible, 
to find in that vocation his own best development. 

"This ideal demands that the pupil explore his own capacities and apti- 
tudes, and make a survey of the world's work, to the end that he may 
select his vocation wisely. Hence, an effective program of vocational 
guidance in the secondary school is essential. 

"Vocational education should aim to develop an appreciation of the 
significance of the vocation to the community and a clear conception of 
right relations between the members of the chosen vocation, between dif- 
ferent vocational groups, between employer and employee, and between 
producer and consumer. These aspects of vocational education, hereto- 
fore neglected, demand emphatic attention." [42, 13.] 

For the above reasons it is agreed that "it is only as the pupil sees his 
vocation in relation to his citizenship and his citizenship in the light of his 
vocation that he will be prepared for effective membership in an industrial 
democracy. Consequently, this commission enters its protest against any 
and all plans, however well intended, which are in danger of divorcing 
vocation and social-civic education. It stands squarely for the infusion of 
vocation with the spirit of service and for the vitalization of culture by 
genuine contact with the world's work." [42, 16.] 

The preceding is the other possible interpretation of the position 
of the Commission on the question of vocational education. This 
is exactly in line with the second of the types of vocational educa- 
tion mentioned by Dewey (above p. 85). Here vocational educa- 
tion is considered as a means to an end rather than as an end 
within itself. In consultation with two members of the Commis- 
sion the writer learned that this interpretation is the one which 
these two had in mind. They realize that the school must recog- 
nize the existing social order even if it does not accept it. The 
pupil must be taken as he is under social conditions as they are, 
but without the necessity of perpetuating the existing order. If 
he is trained to understand the social significance of his work, 
that is, to see "his vocation in relation to his citizenship and his 
citizenship in the light of his vocation," industrial conditions may 
eventually be changed which would offer opportunities in the 
school for a better educational situation. 

Whichever of the two interpretations here offered is the one 
intended by the Commission, it seems certain that the latter is 
the view that many of the progressives in educational matters 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 93 

have accepted. Since Dewey himself has consistently held to the 
latter position and speaks for a wide following in America his 
views will be given at considerable length. 

The Views of John Dewey on Vocational Education 

Dewey says that "nothing could be more absurd than to try to 
educate individuals with an eye to only one line of activity." 
[56, 389.] He furthermore claims that the educational leaders are 
not given over to worship of the vocational. "To those who are 
in closer contact with the opinions which hold conscious sway in the 
minds of the great mass of thinkers and educational leaders there 
is something humorous in the assumption that they are given 
over to the worship of the vocational and industrial. . . . Noth- 
ing gets a hand so quickly in any gathering of teachers as precisely 
the sort of talk in which the critics engage." [55, 216.] 

That Dewey believes that such subjects as cooking, sewing, 
printing, carpentry, forging, etc., should be a part of the educa- 
tional requirements of the boys and girls of this country no one 
can doubt who has read Schools of Tomorrow. (Chapters 9 and 10.) 
That his purpose is not primarily to make breadwinners is like- 
wise evident. "The pupils are not taking the courses to become 
carpenters, or electricians, or dressmakers, but to find out how the 
work of the world is done, . . . while an all round muscular 
and sense-training is insured." [54, 256.] Since the purpose of 
this part of one's school career is not the development of technical 
skill but insight into the ways of doing the world's work, Dewey 
thinks that each child should take many short courses in many 
different occupations. He even thinks it is desirable for a pupil 
to change from one line of work to another several times during 
the same year so that he may gain an insight into as many kinds 
of occupations as time will permit. "If even adults have to be 
on the lookout to see that their calling does not shut down on 
them and fossilize them, educators must certainly be careful that 
the vocational preparation of youth is such as to engage them in a 
continuous reorganization of aims and methods." [56, 364.] 

For this reason he thinks that pupils should keep changing 
from one kind of shop work to another in order that they may keep 
on growing. "To keep on growing," he says, "he must have 
work that exercises his whole body, which presents new problems, 
keeps teaching him new things, and thus develops his powers of 



94 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

reasoning and judgment." [54, 256.] His purpose here as it is 
everywhere else is not money-making, as he is at pains to make 
known, but the growth of the whole child, the summum bonum 
of all educational endeavor. 

Dewey believes that a democracy should have just as much 
skilled labor as possible for "the existence of large masses of 
unskilled laborers, contempt for work with the hands, inability 
to secure the training which enables one to forge ahead in life, all 
operate to produce classes." [54, 313.] This is fatal to democ- 
racy. Hence the kind of industrial education which would be 
acceptable to him would "indeed make much of developing motor 
and manual skill, but not of a routine or automatic kind." The 
routine or automatic kind of education would be just as fatal to 
democracy, if not even more so, than the existence of unskilled 
labor, hence, "skill or technical method at the expense of mean- 
ing" [56, 360] cannot be tolerated. "Acquisition of modes of 
skill apart from realization of the social uses to which they may 
be put is fairly criminal. . . . Unless the mass of workers are 
to be blind cogs and pinions in the apparatus they employ, they 
must have some understanding of the physical and social facts 
behind and ahead of the material and appliances with which they 
are dealing." [54, 245-6.] 

After one has entered upon his vocation it is hard to prevent 
just the state of affairs, described in the last quotation, from tak- 
ing place. "But in schools, associations with machines and in- 
dustrial processes may be had under conditions where the chief 
conscious concern of the students is insight." [56, 368.] That 
this is far from " vocationalization " in any sense except that it 
may enable the pupils to make intelligent choice is not difficult to 
see. In the sense that it is insight that is wanted and not simply 
vocational skill its aim is plainly educational. 

We see then that Dewey does not think that we should 
look down upon "material things and upon the senses and the 
hands" [56, 329], but that he believes that work with the hands 
has within it educative possibilities other than trade results and 
money-making, and indeed, that the educative results are his 
prime consideration there can be no doubt. He is of the opinion 
that business may itself be a "culture of the imagination." [56, 
290.] "How unreasonable to expect that the pursuit of business 
should be itself a culture of the imagination, in breadth and re- 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 95 

finement; that it should directly and not through the money it 
supplies, have social service for its animating principle and be 
conducted as an enterprise in behalf of social organization!" 

Since so many people in our present social conditions must 
earn their own living, and since Dewey ardently wishes that 
no one shall be deprived of this "culture of the imagination" 
and that all shall be animated by the principle of social service, 
he proposes that the schools be not used as "tools of existing 
industrial systems, but to use industry for the reorganization of 
the schools." [54, 311.] Hence, Dewey proposes that schools 
shall be conducted in such a way that the life work of every 
one shall be on this high plane. He wishes to breathe a soul into 
business. "The demand for such education as will acquaint 
workers with the scientific and social bases and bearings of their 
pursuits becomes imperative, since those who are without it in- 
evitably sink to the role of appendages to the machines they 
operate." [56, 367.] 

For this reason he is opposed to narrow trade education for the 
masses, and a literary and so-called cultural education for the 
classes. That he believes the formation of fixed classes is fatal to 
democracy no one can doubt who has read the last pages of Schools 
of Tomorrow and his article on "Learning to Earn." [59, 324.] 
"The democracy which proclaims equality of opportunity as its 
ideal requires an education in which learning and social applica- 
tion of ideas and practice, work and recognition of the meaning of 
what is done, are united from the beginning and for all." [54, 
315.] However, when he says that there is to be one type of 
education for all, some writers jump to the conclusion, as did 
Bruce above, that he means all are to receive a narrow trade edu- 
cation. When the context of the passage Bruce quotes is ex- 
amined it is seen that instead of the conclusion that all are to 
receive a narrow trade education the exact opposite conclusion 
can be reached, that all are to have as broad a type of education 
as possible. When one looks through the other writings of Dewey 
he cannot fail to see that this is just exactly what he does wish. 
But that Dewey thinks that hand construction and manipulation, 
the studies of industry and commerce, the management of busi- 
ness, especially when studied for their social bearings and sig- 
nificance, have each a valuable contribution to make to this high 
type of education no one can doubt who has read his Schools of 



96 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Tomorrow, and his earlier volume School and Society. If in some 
way the school could train its pupils so that they would carry a 
sense of artistry into their work, culture Would be greatly en- 
hanced. He is not willing that the 95 per cent shall be deprived 
of this sense and produce for the 5 per cent who have the sense of 
artistry. If all could do something well it would be much better. 

Dewey asserts that education has in the past been largely voca- 
tional inasmuch as it has had only a few professions in mind. He 
now wants to do as much for those who will follow other callings 
as has been done in the past for the few professions for which the 
traditional school has been to a large extent a direct preparation, 
but he wishes to do much more than this. He demands that "all 
the items of school instruction shall be seen and appreciated in 
their bearing upon the net-work of social activities which bind 
people together." He wants the school instruction to do this for 
the man at the machine, but he also wants the man in the older 
professions to be less narrow and to have this same opportunity 
for growth along many lines. "The scientific inquirer should not 
be merely the scientist, the teacher merely the pedagogue, the 
clergyman merely the one who wears the cloth, and so on." 
[56, 360.] 

Hence a person should be trained for all his vocations. "He 
must be a member of a family; he must have friends and com- 
panions; he must either support himself or be supported by 
others, and thus he has a business career. He is a member of some 
political unit, and so on." [56, 359.] If a person is developed 
just for one of these and nothing else, "he is so much the less 
developed human being." For this reason, Dewey wishes to do 
for the pure scientist, the statesman, the clergyman, as much as 
is done for the industrial workers, and he is decidedly unwilling to 
abandon the latter to the exploitation of unscrupulous employers. 

In fact, it is difficult for one who has read all of Dewey's more 
important works on education to come to any other conclusion 
than that his prime purpose is to make culture democratic; and 
before this can be done industry must be humanized. It has not 
yet been humanized and may not even be in the process of human- 
ization. Only by attacking this problem boldly can the schools 
make realistic science and machine industry humanistic. We 
cannot do it by seeking a refuge from them in a contemplation of 
the glorious ages of the past. "And while there is no guaranty 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 97 

that an education which uses science and employs the controlled 
processes of industry as a regular part of its equipment will suc- 
ceed, there is every assurance that an educational practice which 
sets science and industry in opposition to its ideal of culture will 
fail." [55, 216.] 

Other Progressives on Vocational Education 

Other progressives in education do not favor exclusive domina- 
tion of the secondary school by vocational education, but agree 
for the most part with Dewey. Flexner's position is that of a 
genuine liberal education despite the fact that he has often been 
accused of narrow utilitarianism. "No subject of instruction 
will be retained," says one of his critics [209, 522], "whose 'real' 
utility is undemonstrable and education, as a whole, will become 
vocational, to a high degree of specificity." Flexner definitely 
says, however, that he assumes "that the Modern School of which 
we are now speaking contemplates liberal and general education." 
[75. 8-] In the Modern School " literature is to be taught . . . 
primarily for the purpose of developing taste, interest and appre- 
ciation, not for the purpose of producing persons who make litera- 
ture or who seem to know its history; we hope to train persons, 
not to write poems or to discuss their historic place, but to care 
vitally for poetry — though not perhaps without a suspicion that 
this is the surest way of liberating creative talent. The Modern 
School would in the same way endeavor to develop a spontaneous, 
discriminating and genuine artistic interest and appreciation — 
rather than to fashion makers of music and art. It would take 
hold of the child where he is and endeavor to develop and to 
refine his taste." [75, 12.] Modern languages are to be studied 
for the purposes of "travel, trade, study, and enjoyment." [75,13.] 
The main purpose of the Modern School is to train the pupil ' ' to 
know, to care about and to understand the world he lives in, both 
the physical and social world." Flexner ends his discussion of the 
curriculum with the statement: "It is of course obvious that, if 
the Modern School were limited to industrial and commercial 
activities, with just so much language, mathematics and science as 
the effective prosecution of those activities requires, the higher 
potentialities of the child would remain undeveloped. But the 
Modern School proposes nothing of the kind. It undertakes a 
large and free handling of the phenomenal world appealing in due 



98 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

course to the observational, the imaginative and reasoning capaci- 
ties of the child, and in precisely the same spirit and with equal 
emphasis it will utilize art, literature and music." 

It is clear from this that Flexner does not propose a form of 
vocational education for adolescents. He proposes a broad liberal 
education, or as Caldwell, Principal of the Lincoln School, 1 ex- 
pressed it: "It is hoped that a broader education can be devel- 
oped — an education that will help many to participate in life more 
effectively and more richly than is now the case. . . . Democracy 
needs not utilitarian education but significant education." After 
quoting this [203, August 8, 1918, p. 339] an English correspon- 
dent adds: "It is clear that these American schoolmen feeling 
their way onward are not dominated by materialism, the fear of 
whose spectral hands caused English pedagogues of old to shrink 
before any tendency that might be characterized as 'American.' " 

Ex-president Eliot is of like mind with Dewey and Flexner. 
"If one had to choose," he says [67, 10-11], "between training 
the senses and training the memory and the language powers, one 
would choose the latter; but both are indispensable to the best 
results in education. Neither depends for its educational value 
on imparting information; each supplies an indispensable disci- 
pline for the human intelligence." 

Snedden declares that we need "all the vital, effective general 
education — cultural and civic — that we can secure on behalf of all 
our citizens, in order that they may appreciate, understand and 
control the very complex economic and political conditions under 
which civilization in the future is to advance and be conserved." 
[172, December 28, 1918, p. 189.] He claims that "the develop- 
ment of vocational education will not conflict with the regular 
high school, 'the liberal arts college of the common people'. 
A constantly increasing proportion of American youth may be 
expected to seek two or three or four years of liberal educa- 
tion beyond the elementary school before embarking on their 
vocations or on the vestibule to their vocations. But these 
youths do want — and America wants for them — that these two or 
more years of education shall in reality function truly as lib- 
eral education — as genuine humanistic education, if you will." 
[184, 173-1 

1 The Lincoln School was established as an experimental school along the 
lines proposed by Flexner. 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 99 

E. C. Moore's position is at first glance misleading for he as- 
serts that "Education must be vocationalized throughout." 
[138, 366.] However, he hastens to add that "if it prepares them 
for it (their art) all education becomes real and vocational for the 
life of the religious person, of the citizen in a democracy, of the 
member of a family and a social and economic producer is the life 
into which they are called." 

"I have a quarrel," he continues, "with the folks who are try- 
ing to give the good old word vocation the exclusive connotation 
of a money-earning occupation. One is called to many more 
than to produce goods for sale. His education at all stages must 
I think be broader than a mere effort to acquire salable skill 
though at certain stages the development of salable skill in a 
particular trade or occupation should be the chief element in his 
course, but not even then the only element." It is plain that 
Moore does not mean to advocate that kind of education that 
prepares merely for a recognized vocation. Purposeful education 
would more exactly describe his position. At least it can be said 
that he would not make vocational education the sole form of 
education for adolescents. 

W. R. Smith avoids the difficulty from which Moore had to 
extricate himself. He says [180, 266-7] : 

The term 'socialization' must not be confused with 'practicalization' 
and 'vocationalization.' It might be possible to read into the two last- 
named terms all that is meant by socialization, but in ordinary use they 
are not so inclusive. Socialization does not merely refuse to exclude the 
cultural idea ; rather it lays much emphasis upon it. It insists that culture 
in its broadest aspects must be a fundamental aim of education. No edu- 
cational system with a program which does not bear fruitage in the highest 
culture attainable, can be socialized. Generally, although not necessarily, 
the vocational, the industrial, and the practical programs have contented 
themselves with the immediate end of producing economic efficiency. 
But the socialized program is far broader. It must be practical and to a 
certain extent vocational, but only because and in so far as culture has a 
material basis. ... In our educational efforts culture, typifying the 
best in our civilization, must remain an equally important aim with 
vocational efficiency, typifying the most fundamental in our civilization. 

The opinions of the men just given have been selected because 
their writings have been frequently cited as indicating a strong 
vocational tendency. Since it has been shown that none of them 



ioo Secondary Education in England and the United States 

axe in favor of a predominant form of vocational education it 
seems reasonable to suppose that among educators at least the 
vocational tendency in the United States is not as strong as it has 
been claimed by certain writers. Of about seventy other writers 
whose opinions have been collected a great majority are at pains 
to show that exclusive domination of secondary education by 
vocational studies is not with them an aim. Some of these will be 
given. 

Kilpatrick thinks that to reduce all higher education "to the 
strictly vocational, to the bread-and-butter utilitarian" would be 
"a calamity unspeakable." [113, December 1, 191 8.] Judd and 
Bagley [101, 317] are of the opinion that when given trade educa- 
tion "should be accompanied just as far as possible by broaden- 
ing, sympathy-cultivating instruction." Many of the prominent 
writers hope that citizenship, homemaking, social relationships of 
every kind, a worthy use of leisure, and broad outlook on life may 
be just as prominent aims as circumstances will permit. Inglis 
[94, 596] states that "it must be recognized that the preparation 
of the worker is one of the necessary aims of secondary education." 
However, he makes it plain that the "vocational-economic aim 
must not be allowed to exclude the social-civic and the individual- 
istic-avocational aims. "Vocational education is not intended as 
a substitute for the old-fashioned kind, nor is it the purpose of 
those in charge to let it supplant any of the academic subjects 
that answer fundamental human needs." [126, 593.] "Voca- 
tional education is not to be thought of as a substitute for general 
education but as a necessary part of it, or as supplementary to it. 
To every one should be vouchsafed the opportunity for a broad all 
round education that makes for complete manhood or woman- 
hood, which should be supplemented by adequate preparation for 
a chosen occupation." [172, Vol. 5, p. 564.] "But no matter 
what vocation a student is to follow he must become a citizen and 
should, therefore, be trained for genuine citizenship which necessi- 
tates an 'intelligent active participation in human affairs.'" 
[122, 42.] 

It is, therefore, a question whether the associations which Judd 
described as doing so much to advance the cause of vocational 
education, together with the Smith-Hughes Act, will be able to 
prevail against the undoubtedly predominant opinion of educa- 
tional writers and leaders. From the evidence it seems that 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 101 

American educators wish rather to give every child, rich or poor, 
a chance for full and complete development than to make him 
merely vocationally efficient. To be democratic the school 
must supply the demands of its clientele, and, since vocational 
education makes an appeal to some pupils that nothing else will, 
it is offered as one of the means by which pupils of a certain type 
may be reached, and it is hoped that it may also be made an 
effective agent in attaining the larger end of complete develop- 
ment. 

Other writers have also found this to be true. It was shown 
above (Chapter II, p. 18) that the economic appeal is a bad second 
to the more genuine American ideal of universal education. Baw- 
den [208, 1916, p. 145] reaches a similar conclusion. He finds 
that a form of objection to vocational education arises "from the 
belief that the vocational education program is determined by an 
incomplete vision of the real meaning of education, and that it sets 
up aims that are indefensibly narrow. Basing their judgment on 
the performance of certain private institutions conducted primarily 
for gain, critics of this type appear to conceive that to train a boy 
or girl in the operation of some factory machine or process by 
means of a brief intensive course is regarded and accepted as vo- 
cational education. To this view the one sufficient reply is that 
it is wholly mistaken. There is no evidence that this is the view 
held by the framers of any of the legislation thus far enacted. 
On the contrary, emphasis is quite generally placed, in the laws 
themselves, on the supplementary instruction necessary to build 
a well-rounded course of training. 

"Furthermore, the experience of the States which have under- 
taken to deal specifically with this problem demonstrates that 
this narrow conception of vocational education is not the one 
which will prevail in this country. It is not believed that the 
vocational education movement can be justly charged with seek- 
ing anything less than the highest interests of young people and 
the social whole." 

Statistics Indicate No Strong Tendency Toward 
Vocational Education 

The statistics that have been collected seem to indicate that as 
yet there is no strong tendency toward a domination of secondary 
education by vocational education. According to the United 



102 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

States Bureau of Education [208, 1917, Vol. II; p. 14] there 
were in 191 5 only 89,338 students, or 6.92 per cent of the 
total enrollment, studying agriculture, 14,424 students, or 1.12 
per cent of the total enrollment studying bookkeeping, out of a 
total enrollment of 1,291,187 students in schools reporting on 
studies. No other vocational studies were listed unless such 
subjects as manual training and home economics be considered as 
vocational subjects which should not be so considered since the 
primary aim of those studies is not to prepare for a recognized 
vocation. 

The aggregate numbers of academic and vocational units 1 
in the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary 
Schools were in 1916, 24,317 and 10,346 respectively. [144, 97.] 
This is slightly less than 30 per cent of the total number. "Voca- 
tional Units" was, however, defined to include manual training, 
home economics, music, agriculture, commercial subjects, art, and 
drawing. [144, 51.] When all these subjects are included it is 
surprising that the number was no larger. 

In the state of South Dakota in a recent investigation [172, Vol. 
8, p. 778] it was found that there were 55 teachers of business out 
of a total number of 1077 high school teachers in the state. There 
were 24 in the department of teaching. No other vocational sub- 
jects were mentioned. 

The Real Issue in Vocational Education 

From the preceding considerations it seems that the issue in 
the question of vocational education is not whether it shall domi- 
nate the secondary school curriculum but (1) whether when both 
England and the United States are considered it shall be a part of 
secondary education at all, and (2) to what extent when America 
alone is considered it shall be given. 

To the first question the answer in England is in the negative as 
has been shown. The answer in America is in the affirmative, 
because there seems to be a demand for it. That there is such a 
demand is shown by the results of the San Francisco Survey. It 
was found during the survey that in that city alone there were 
"164 schools not under the control of the city school system of 
which number at least 106 offer courses more or less vocational in 



1 A unit is equal to a semester's work of five hours a week. 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 103 

character." [169, 493.] The great number of private business 
schools throughout the country lead one to believe that this is 
more or less typical. The Surveying Committee in this case, true 
to the American policy of providing all kinds of educational op- 
portunities for adolescents at public expense, raised the question 
as to the consequences "of permitting private enterprise to engage 
in the business of supplying these needs." [169, 493. Cf. above 

p. 32.] 

Many writers favor it as a part, but only as a part, of secondary 
education. This is implicit or explicit in practically all the 
statements above. Inglis [94, see index], Monroe [133, see index], 
Johnston [95 and 96, see index], and other authors of text-books 
on secondary education give vocational education a place, but not 
an exclusive place. In every educational survey that has been 
made recently the same position is taken when recommendations 
on the question of vocational education are made. Every dif- 
ferentiated program of studies examined provides for one or more 
vocational curriculums. 

Opinion Varies as to the Extent to which Vocational Education 
should be Given. As to the second question, the extent to which 
vocational education should be given in the regularly established 
secondary schools of the United States, practice and opinion varies. 
It was shown above that the Commission on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education go so far as to encourage early choice and 
permit some students to spend as much as two thirds of their time 
on vocational subjects. Noyes [145, 155] describes one type of 
junior high school in which "the boy and girl and their advisers 
decide, so far as they can when he or she enters the seventh grade 
whether he or she shall go to college, to the farm, to the counting- 
house, to the kitchen, to the factory, or to the studio. . . . 
The general principle is that of early decision as to vocation. 
That such courses are called optional should not divert one from 
the fact that the effect of such an arrangement is early choice and 
specialisation in vocational lines. . . . The justification for 
such specialisation is that most of the pupils, especially in city 
schools will not go to high school anyway, and hence they are 
better fitted for their life work by some specialized training for it, 
even at this early age of fifteen to sixteen." However, Noyes 
found [145, 155] a third type of junior high school which "is based 
on the principle that the boy and girl should have as great a 



104 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

variety of experiences as is practicable and that definite voca- 
tional choices should be deferred as long as possible." 

Bawden [208, 1916, p. 146] seems to think that choice will not 
be madebefore theageof fourteen. "One prominentspokesman," 
he says, "publicly charges vocational education with being a 
deliberate attempt to determine arbitrarily the life occupations of 
boys and girls, and to divert them at a tender age into careers 
which hold no promise for the future. 

"As Snedden has ably pointed out, this is a baseless charge. 
There is no issue with regard to vocational education under four- 
teen years of age, since there is 'little or no serious discussion of 
vocational education, as a direct and purposive preparation for 
a specific calling, which now contemplates any claim upon the 
years required in most states to be given to compulsory school 
attendance, namely from six to fourteen years of age.' " 

A possible inference from this statement is that vocational edu- 
cation shall have a claim after fourteen. From Snedden's more 
complete statement, however, it seems that his position is very 
similar to that of the group of educators who wish to make voca- 
tional preparation educative in the broad sense of the term. His 
position is as follows [183, 64]: 

For those trades and commercial callings in which a considerable period 
of systematic training, involving definite practice on the one hand, and a 
large amount of correlated technical instruction on the other, is required, 
my prediction is that our program will eventually assume something of the 
following shape: 

Young people from fourteen to sixteen years of age who cannot con- 
tinue further their general education will either give their entire time to a 
vocational school equipped with shops and all facilities for productive 
work, or else will have substantially half of their time provided for in a 
vocational school and the remainder in work directed by the school in in- 
dustries, the school undertaking to direct or at least advise as to the shift- 
ing of the young learners from job to job, with a view to making such prac- 
tical experience of maximum educational value. 

At about sixteen years of age, these young workers will be introduced 
to their respective industrial callings under the guidance of the school, by 
an arrangement entered into between the school and the industry, the 
school still retaining supervisory oversight, for two years, of the learners, 
with a view to preventing their being confined too exclusively to a limited 
field of work, and to insure that their practical experience shall give a large 
return in educational development. During this period the wage of the 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 105 

learner will be determined primarily on the basis of the requirements of his 
educational program, and only secondarily in view of what he might be 
making as a producer through the employing establishment. 

Bonser Favors a Rather Strong Vocational Tendency. Bonser 
states that in the senior high school "more definitely specialized 
vocational courses in industrial, commercial and vocational fields 
may well be offered for those not expecting to enter more advanced 
institutions. . . . Here fully half the time, or even more than 
half, may be devoted to shop, office, or field practice and closely 
related technical or supplementary subjects." 

Elsewhere, however, Bonser [20, 325] makes it plain that he 
does not wish vocational education to become predominant in 
education. 

Since the early entrance to industry, he says, is more largely from the 
families of poorer people, any narrowly specialized form of industrial train- 
ing which neglects to develop potential capacity for more advanced work 
tends to keep those poor who are poor and to develop ultimately a caste 
system. 

In the development of our industrial life, we must do all we can through 
the schools to increase individual and collective industrial efficiency, but 
in no case must we use the schools as a means of limiting or subordinating 
the elements and values of the larger citizenship, either individual or col- 
lective. Keeping our perspective under the light and guidance of demo- 
cratic ideals is necessary as never before. In the broader development of 
our material resources we must make no fatal error in the development 
and conservation of our human resources. 

Bonser also offers a possible program for the junior high school 
which though rich in vocational elements does not demand so 
much time as Bonser advocates for the senior high school. In the 
junior high school he thinks there may well be five groups, "the 
academic, the industrial, the commercial, the agricultural, and the 
household arts groups." [18, 572.] His plan for organizing these 
curriculums is as follows: 

By rating each year's work at thirty units, the distribution of eighteen 
to work in common and twelve in the differentiated fields gives a total of 
fifty-four in common and thirty-six in group courses. The fifty-four units 
covering subject-matter of common value and about equal interest if prop- 
erly humanized may be distributed as follows: 



106 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

12 units — English 
8 units — History 
8 units — Geography 
8 units — Elementary Science 

5 units — Everyday Mathematics and Economics 

6 units — Civics, Problems in Institutional and Vocational Life 
4 units — Physical Education 

3 units — Music 

The thirty-six remaining units may be made up by selecting entirely 
from the offerings in any one of the five groups suggested in the foregoing, 
or by some selection from two or more groups. It is by no means suggested 
that these groupings be made water-tight compartments. 

Only Extreme Cases Show a Strong Vocational Tendency 

In Los Angeles there are to-day over ioo subjects listed, 
nearly 75 per cent of them dealing with industrial and com- 
mercial subjects. [85, 112.] Johnston reports an investigation 
by one of his graduate students of so-called high school "courses of 
study " "from fifty-four high schools in towns of over 4000 popula- 
tion, representing practically every state in the union, and rep- 
resentative also of the smaller cities of these states, showed a 
total of 93 subjects offered, 50 of which may be classed as voca- 
tional." [97, 583.] Johnston does not, however, give any defini- 
tion of what he means by vocational education. Meek reports 
from Boise 50 per cent of the program in that city as industrial. 
[130, 669.] 

F. E. Barr [11a, 393] gives actual percentages of the time de- 
voted to the vocational subjects as follows: 

The time given to the practical arts work varies greatly in the various 
grades and in different schools. The average is about 5 per cent in the 
first six grades, 6 per cent in the seventh and eighth grades, and 25 per cent 
in the senior year of the high school. . . . The time allowed for the 
work is not sufficient to cause even such work as is given to function to any 
great extent as practical or industrial training. 

When the most extreme cases in practice are taken it is rarely 
found that even those who are registered in commercial and in- 
dustrial courses devote more than 50 per cent of their time to vo- 
cational subjects. Goddard (Proc. of N. E. A. 1917, p. 605) found 
that there are two plans operative in the country as a whole. One 
gives approximately one-fourth of the time to the vocational sub- 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 107 

jects and three-fourths to the academic or general subjects. This 
is the plan in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and a number of 
other states. The second plan requires that a distinct vocational 
department must be maintained in which pupils take all the work 
of their courses and in which the vocational aim must be given 
chief prominence. Half the time must be devoted to vocational 
work. This is the plan in Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania. 
Not all the students of any school, it is needless to say, are en- 
rolled in these departments. 

Vocational Education Not Intended for All nor the Sole Training 
for Any One. From the foregoing considerations it is plain that 
vocational education is not intended for everybody nor is it ex- 
pected that it shall be the sole part of the education for anybody. 
While it is true that in some cases a strong vocational bias is 
evident, yet when the total result is considered here again it seems 
that the second group of vocationalists represent the dominant 
tendency. If Goddard is right in stating that from 25 to 50 per 
cent of the pupils' time is devoted to vocational subjects, and since 
it is estimated that only about 25 per cent of the pupils in the high 
schools of the United States are enrolled in vocational courses 
[208, Vol. I, 1915, p. 279, and 1917, Vol. II, p. 514] it is evident 
that less than one-eighth of the total work of the high schools 
throughout the United States is devoted to vocational subjects. 
In the survey of Springfield, it was found that only 7 per cent 
of pupil recitations was devoted to commercial subjects, while 
English occupied 22 per cent of the time, Mathematics 20 per 
cent, Science 12 per cent, or 54 per cent for these three alone. 
The remainder of the time was divided among the other subjects 
as follows: History, 10 per cent, Latin, 8 per cent, Manual Train- 
ing, 8 per cent, Domestic Science, 7 per cent, German, 4 per cent, 
French, 2 per cent. [3b, 113.] 

The Possibilities of Developing a Caste System in Secondary 
Education. When democratic standards are taken as a basis for 
judging the existing situation in regard to vocational education 
there are two conflicting opinions. One takes the position that 
the old system of secondary education was a caste system because it 
was suited only to the needs of a few and accordingly drove many 
away. "There have long been provided the means of training 
lawyers, doctors, ministers, engineers, musicians, teachers, etc.," 
it is claimed [87, 2], "(members of different professions who 



108 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

constitute altogether about five per cent of all the gainfully em- 
ployed), but for the common occupations, of home-making, of 
personal service, of clerical callings, and of transportation on land 
or sea — the public means have been inadequate, especially since 
the decay of apprenticeship and of the gilds, and since the growth 
of the factory system." It is proposed, that "the needs — all the 
needs — of the future industrial workers be given the same careful 
attention in the secondary school as are the needs for the future 
professional and commercial men." 

The other group claims that the proposal that vocational educa- 
tion be given early will perpetuate a caste system, because it 
divides the school into classes, even if it does give to the industrial 
class a better education of the kind that they have hitherto acquired 
empirically. This is the position of Judd and Bagley. "It 
is contended," they say [101, 317], "with unlimited emphasis on 
the needs of democracy, that whenever trade training is given it 
should be accompanied just as far as possible by broadening, sym- 
pathy-cultivating instruction. To give early a limited occupa- 
tional training will tend (1) to set up class distinctions, and (2) 
to deprive large numbers of children of the broad basis of general 
and liberal training which is essential to successful democracy." 
These men describe a type of junior high school "which sharply 
differentiates and divides its students into entirely different social 
castes. Some of the latter types of schools have laid great 
stress on commercial or industrial training and have treated the 
junior high schools as the device for introducing into public schools 
a narrow type of vocational training at an early age in the life of 
the pupils." [101, 321.] 

Judd is especially insistent that the masses shall have just as 
broad training as the classes. 

To my mind we may as well give up the boast of democracy if we are 
to have industrial education for the masses and a liberal education for the 
favored few. When I hear some boastful pedant talk about the chosen 
few who are to radiate light for the guidance of the many and when I hear 
him talking of industrial education as a boon to be presented by his ex- 
clusive and ruling class to the multitude, I can think of but one answer 
and that is an invitation to go and preach his pernicious doctrines to will- 
ing listeners in middle Europe. [99, 160.] 

Others are of the same opinion. Bonser, for instance, states 
that "since the early entrance to industry is more largely from the 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 109 

families of poorer people, any narrowly specialized form of indus- 
trial training which neglects to develop potential capacity for more 
advanced work tends to keep those poor who are poor and to 
develop ultimately a caste system." [20, 325.] 

Weld is in complete agreement with this view. [210, 264.] 
"The movement toward vocational education is in the right direc- 
tion. Most emphatically so. But is it not in some cases too 
radical? Is it not likely to be directed along too narrow lines? 
Does it not, in some of its aspects, tend to foster rather than pre- 
vent, the development of a distinct industrial class — of an indus- 
trial caste even?" 

There is very little doubt that this is the case under some cir- 
cumstances. It is a question, however, whether it is a caste 
system, when vocational education is so conducted as, first, to 
foster the individual growth of those who take it as Dewey and the 
progressives plan for it to do, and thereby prepares for the existing 
social order. Secondly, if in giving an appreciation of the social 
and industrial foundations of life, it thus prepares for a possible 
modification of the existing social order. Thirdly, if it is conceived 
only as one means of using the pupil's whole environment for his 
education; in other words, if vocational education be used as a 
means to a larger education, rather than as an end within itself. 
If the first of the two forces described by Dewey above should pre- 
dominate then it is likely that vocational education will mean the 
development of caste, but if the second should predominate there 
is no likelihood that such will be the case. It seems that there is a 
strong probability that the latter will prevail as has been shown. 

Secondary Education Should Be Both Cultural and 

Practical 

If then to select vocational education for one group of pupils 
primarily while another devotes its time to the cultural subjects 
would tend to develop class distinctions, the question arises 
whether it would be possible to have a curriculum which serves 
both vocational and humanistic purposes at the same time, that is, 
to blend the cultural and the practical. Dewey thinks that "If 
we had less compromise and resulting confusion, if we analyzed 
more carefully the respective meanings of culture and utility, we 
might find it easier to construct a course of study which should be 
useful and liberal at the same time." [56, 302.] 



no Secondary Education in England and the United States 

A number of other writers have been found to champion this 
position. Judd declares [99, 151] that "the stability of our in- 
stitutions depends upon the discovery of some method of bringing 
together industry and the liberal arts." The following are typical 
statements from other writers: 

Universal secondary education combining both the cultural and the 
vocational in a scientifically balanced curriculum must be adopted as the 
American slogan. [71, 309.] 

The citizen of the future should be a cultured vocationalist. . . . 
These (the vocational and the cultural) are in no wise contradictory, but 
are reciprocally interdependent. [213, 661.] 

I hold no brief for a type of education in which culture and utility are 
mutually exclusive. [70, 135.] 

The problem of providing for both the cultural and the practical 
seems to be the main problem in the secondary schools of the 
United States. From the foregoing discussion there can be little 
doubt that educational opinion is strongly against substituting 
vocational education for liberal education. It is likewise evident 
that vocational education will be a part of secondary education, 
but it seems that all subjects, even vocational subjects, will be 
selected more with a view to their social values than to their 
vocational values. This will be taken up again in the following 
chapter. 

Even if the educators in the United States should succeed in ac- 
complishing this ideal and should put vocational education on a 
liberalized plane as Dewey and the progressives propose, still this 
would be far beyond anything England has as yet been willing to 
allow in early vocational specialisation. The English do not ac- 
cept such liberalized vocational training because they consider it 
vocational nevertheless and not educative in intent. The Eng- 
lish also do not accept the principle advocated by certain Ameri- 
can writers that if a pupil is going to leave school early anyway he 
should, therefore, be given vocational training. Inglis [94, 576], 
for instance, says that "by far the greatest proportion of those 
leaving school before the completion of the course will engage in 
practical arts pursuits. For those pupils instruction in the practi- 
cal arts subjects of a vocational purpose and character is necessary 
and legitimate." 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 1 1 1 

English and American Practices Compared 

The English would ask why it is on this account "necessary and 
legitimate." In a few days or weeks after the worker has entered 
upon his vocation he will have acquired easily all the skill that he 
could possibly have acquired under more or less artificial school 
conditions and if he has devoted his time to vocational subjects 
in school to the neglect of those broadening subjects he might 
have taken, they are forever lost. That a worker may acquire 
skill quickly has been shown by the speed with which many 
trades were learned during the war. The following explains such 
a situation even in times of peace. "Two or three weeks, or even 
less," it is said [94, 582], 

suffices to master all the technical training and skill that can be employed in 
the work, — which is trueof about 85 per cent of the paper-box-making indus- 
try and of about an equal per cent of the machine work in shirt and collar 
factories, — it is evident that no grade training at public expense should be 
provided. If the advanced processes of the work are so simple in nature 
that all the knowledge and skill needed can be picked up in the trade itself 
with what little assistance can be given by a foreman, which is possible 
in plants working in white goods, in power sewing, straw hat sewing, and 
underwear knitting, it is then inadvisable to use public funds for training 
workers to enter the industry. 

It is still a question, therefore, whether the American practice is 
best even for those who will almost assuredly drop out of school 
early. " It still remains a task for the future to determine whether 
the national experiment in providing early specialized vocational 
preparation on the basis of an elementary education will meet the 
needs of a democracy more satisfactorily than an extended general 
education followed by short intensive training which has proved so 
successful in the war industries." [203, November 28, 1918, 
p. 516.] 

England's answer on this question is clear and definite. She 
will not permit industrial education to "strike its roots deep down 
into the elementary school," as Leavitt advises (above, p. 87). 
England will not permit the field chosen even for "some" to be 
""as sharply defined as a specific trade," nor will she permit those 
"who will probably enter industry at the end of the ninth grade" 
to give "as much as two-thirds of their time to vocational prepara- 
tion," as the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary 



H2 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Education are willing to permit. Likewise England was careful 
in passing the recent Education Act to prevent just such a situa- 
tion as the Smith-Hughes Act tends to create. England is op- 
posed, as was shown in the preceding chapter, to any kind of early 
specialisation before sixteen years of age and thinks that a choice 
of vocation should be deferred ; while in America it has been shown 
that early choice "at least tentatively" is encouraged. Kenyon 
[no, 23] in his final conclusions states that "all alike deprecate 
the conduct of education in a commercial spirit, and declare their 
faith in a liberal education as the foundation for all activities of 
mind and spirit in a civilized country." The English, therefore, 
concentrate early upon humanistic-cultural values, languages, 
history, science, mathematics, etc., and then on top of this broad 
liberal training they superimpose vocational and professional 
preparation. England expects a large part of one's vocational 
training to be acquired after one has entered upon his trade. 
The English believe in vocational education "but let the industry 
give it at the cost of the industry." [203, April 17, 1919, p. 185.] 
"You will train your banker in a bank," seems to be the English 
attitude. This seems to many to be the correct solution of the 
problem of vocational education since, as was shown above, in 
many trades and occupations by intensive training all the skill re- 
quired may be attained very quickly, and is, therefore, useless to 
try to teach it in school as now organized. 

Accordingly, the English are opposed to the principle that cer- 
tain pupils should be given a vocational education while others are 
given a liberal education. A deputation from the Classical As- 
sociation laid the following proposal before the President of the 
Board of Education, which, although it may at first sight seem to 
indicate that it was a plan to keep the curriculum of the secondary 
schools under the control of the classicists, nevertheless its princi- 
ples seem to have been accepted by many other associations. 
"The Classical Association desires to draw the attention of the 
Board of Education to the existing tendency, by which the educa- 
tion given to the cleverer children who come from the elementary 
schools bears a different stamp from that given to children of the 
professional classes, being directed more narrowly to material and 
industrial well-being and less to the effective study of literature 
and history. 

"Among the pupils from the elementary schools will be many 



Vocational Education in Secondary Schools 113 

who are likely to exercise influence in the public life, both munici- 
pal and national, of the coming generation; and in the interest of 
the whole community it is of high importance that these future 
leaders of their fellow-citizens should have some knowledge of the 
past history of mankind, especially of its political institutions and 
experiments, and should acquire an enduring interest in the ideals 
of both private and public character, by which the noblest sides of 
civilization have been moulded. The Classical Association ob- 
serves with interest the declaration of the Workers' Educational 
Association : 

"That since the character of British Democracy ultimately 
depends on the collective wisdom of its adult members, no system 
of education can be complete that does not promote serious 
thought and discussion on the fundamental interests and problems 
of life and society.'" [no, 32.] 

Whether it is better for the pupil and for the nation, whether it 
is in the interest of democracy, to allow early specialisation along 
vocational lines is not a question for easy solution. England 
solves the problem in one way, America in another. The fact that 
America attempts to give universal free secondary education and 
England does not, possibly has something to do with the dif- 
ference. It is in the interest of Democracy to attract as many 
pupils as possible into high schools, so America thinks, but Eng- 
land wishes to attract the best pupils to the secondary schools. 
The difference is not entirely due to this cause, however, as the 
same principle of postponing specialisation applies to the continua- 
tion schools in England as to the secondary schools. After 
pupils are in school, to separate them off into differentiated curric- 
ulums, some pupils devoting much of their time to vocational 
subjects and others devoting all their time to liberal subjects, may 
bring about cleavage and class distinctions which are hostile to 
democracy. It may be, therefore, that the correct solution has 
not been reached in either country. 



CHAPTER V 

THE BASIS FOR THE SELECTION OF CONTENT IN 
THE MODERN PROGRAM OF STUDIES 

Social values broadly conceived and not vocational efficiency 
will be the basis for the selection of subject matter in the future, as 
was stated in the preceding chapter. In that chapter it was shown 
that even a study of vocations, trades and industries may be so 
organized and so taught as to bring the pupil to a clear comprehen- 
sion of their social significance in the world today. We propose in 
this chapter to carry this line of argument still further and show 
that all other subjects of whatever kind and the theory by which 
their contents are selected are coming more and more to be meas- 
ured by social standards. 

The reasons for thinking that these statements are true, are (a) 
the intelligent comprehension of the modern world in all its as- 
pects, political, industrial, economic, and intellectual, is a domi- 
nant purpose in modern secondary education. (&) Opponents in 
recent controversies on the question of curriculum values are 
agreed, at least to the extent that subject matter should be broadly 
social in intent, (c) The expressed aims of the various subjects 
in the present programs of studies are broadly social rather than 
mainly literary, (d) Modern conceptions of educational method 
so far as they imply subject matter demand a social content. 

Comprehension of the Modern World as an Aim 

To-day the social ideal permeates modern educational philoso- 
phy through and through and is the dominant note in the reor- 
ganization of secondary education. Much of the recent unrest in 
matters educational has been due to a belief that the activities of 
the secondary school have not had in the past and still do not have 
a social value, but are in large part based on bare tradition, and 
that these activities have accordingly lost their value for modern 
life. As a consequence there has arisen the feeling that "the old 
conception of a liberal education ... is not adapted 
either to the needs of the pupils or to the requirements of the 
114 



Selection of Content 115 

communities in which they live to-day." [203, November 14, 
191, p. 490.] 

Accordingly, the movement to put secondary education on a 
social basis has developed because it is thought that there is need 
both within and without the school for more life contact that "we 
know with tried certainty that nothing counts but that which 
really and vitally serves the good of folks" [137, 335]; that "what 
we are really concerned for is the good of folks" [135,231]; that "all 
literature, all art, all science, all government, all religion . . . 
have no other reason for existence than to teach folks to live 
well" [135, 232]; that "we must make two conquests and keep 
making them as long as we live. One of these is the conquest 
of nature, the other is the conquest of social relations. The 
conquest of nature is relatively easy; but the conquest of social 
relations is so difficult that as yet but a mere beginning has been 
made in it." [135,243.] 

Moore thus clearly makes human beings the center of all con- 
sideration in education. Many others are in complete agreement. 
It is stated that whatever else may be dispensed with "no one can 
dispense with a knowledge of man. Every one needs it, and is 
using it each minute he is in relation with human beings, whether 
he is speaking to them, or reading what they have written, or 
engaged in work which at any point touches them" [172, Sep- 
tember 14, 1918, p. 311]; that "the main theme is men, not things, 
and the way men have conceived the relation of things." [172, 
July 20, 1918, p. 62.] Furthermore it is stated that "knowledge 
is instrumental to a life process and . . . the selection of 
content must be based, not on some supposed intrinsic merit of 
the knowledge itself, but on its value for the social process" 
[172, October 19, 1918, p. 451]; and that "the man educated in the 
modern sense will be trained to know, to care about and to under- 
stand the world he lives in, both the physical world and the social 
world." [75, 8.] 

If these statements are typical of the American situation, as 
they seem to be, one can gather from them that secondary educa- 
tion is coming more and more (a) to be centered around the study 
of human beings and how they have conceived the relation of 
things ; (b) that it is the present with all its problems rather than 
the past that is of primary concern, the past being important only 
as it enters into the present and helps solve its problems, and (c) 



Ii6 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

the thesis of this section, namely, the acquisition of an intelligent 
comprehension of the modern world, both the social and the 
physical, is established. 

The English Position. Very little distinction if any can be 
made between the English and American positions. Perhaps it is 
correct to say that England still values the traditional and the past 
more than the United States does, but at the same time values 
them as throwing light on the present. On the other hand, the 
United States emphasizes the present and in doing so runs the risk 
of forgetting the past. The American practice may become too 
technical and commercial, the English too bookish. However 
this may be, the general aims in England seem to be the same as 
the American aims described above, as the following quotations 
will show. ' ' No knowledge can be put on a level with a knowledge 
of human nature." [198,580.] "The aim of a modern education 
should be to impart an intellectual knowledge of the Modern 
World." [173, 123.] " Modern side work is the work of the future, 
as every schoolmaster knows. It can provide that spiritual 
elevation and wideness of outlook that will defeat material prej- 
udice." [203, May 30, 1918, p. 266.] "A second capture of Con- 
stantinople back from the Ottomans may usher in a second and 
sizable awakening of the European mind to itself, an intense 
study of the world it lives in, in all its physical, biological, racial, 
and linguistic aspects. Nothing else has the initiative now." 
[203, December 21, 1916, p. 245.] 

The reply of the Council for Humanistic Studies to the letter of 
the Committee on the Neglect of Science seems to be in complete 
accord with the general sentiment of the writers just quoted and 
has exerted a wide influence on the reconstruction of secondary 
education in England. "Education," it says [no, 6], "should be 
nothing less than a preparation for the whole of life. It should 
introduce the future citizen of the community, not merely to the 
physical structure of the world in which they live, but also to the 
deeper interests and the problems of politics, thought, and human 
life. It should acquaint them so far as may be, with the capaci- 
ties and ideals of mankind as expressed in literature and art, with 
its ambitions and achievements as recorded in history, and with 
the nature and laws of the world as interpreted by science, phil- 
osophy, and religion. If we neglect physical science, we shall 
have a very imperfect knowledge of the world around us ; but if we 



Selection of Content 117 

ignore or subordinate the other elements of knowledge, we shall 
cut ourselves off from aspects of life of even greater importance. 
Even physical science will suffer. Some of its most distinguished 
representatives have strongly insisted that early specialisation is 
injurious to the interests they have at heart, and that the best 
preparation for scientific pursuits is a general training which in- 
cludes some study of language, literature, and history. Such a 
training gives width of view and flexibility of intellect. Industry 
and commerce will be most successfully pursued by men whose 
education has stimulated their imagination and widened their 
sympathies." 

Recent Controversies Harmonized 

A comparison of the curriculums proposed by Mr. Abraham 
Flexner of the Rockefeller Foundation and Dean West of Prince- 
ton shows that each stresses social values. Four main fields con- 
stitute the substance of Flexner's curriculum — science, industry, 
aesthetics, and civics. West proposes three main fields, — the 
world of nature, the world of man, and the world of the intellect. 

Flexner has already been quoted (above, p. 115) to the effect 
that " a man educated in the modern sense will be trained to know, 
to care about and to understand the world he lives in, both the 
physical world and the social world." In order that the pupil may 
fully appreciate and comprehend the physical world, Flexner de- 
clares that " the work in science would be the central and dominat- 
ing feature of the school." [75, 10.] West, on the other hand, 
also gives a place to science that the pupil may understand the 
world of nature. He asks [216a, 30], "What are the things a 
really liberally educated man ought to know?" His answer is: 
"Every human being who thinks or who does not think is faced by 
three commanding intellectual questions so long as he lives on 
this planet. The first is the problem of the vast world of nature, 
the world of things outside him, the largest and outermost circle, 
within which his whole life is spent. The answers to this problem, 
so far as given at all, are given in mathematics and science." 

West's second grand division "is the problem of mankind. 
. . . Here the mother-study, source of all the rest is history 
proper. . . . The elements of political and economic studies 
should also be known for their revelation of the fundamental laws 
of government and business." [216a, 30-31.] On the other hand, 



II 



8 Secondary Education in England and the United States 



to meet the needs of the social world Flexner introduces two sub- 
jects into the curriculum, "industry" and "civics." "The indus- 
tries growing out of the fundamental needs of food, clothing and 
shelter; the industries, occupations and apparatus involved in 
transportation and communication — all furnish practically unlim- 
ited openings for constructive experiences, for experiments and for 
the study of commercial practices. Through such experiences the 
boy and girl obtain not only a clearer understanding of the social 
and industrial foundations of life, but also opportunity for expres- 
sion and achievement in terms natural to adolescence." [75, 11.] 
"Civics includes history, institutions, and current happenings." 
[75> I 3-] West desires political and economic studies for "their 
revelation of the fundamental laws of government and business." 
Flexner desires a study of industries and of civics for a clearer 
"understanding of the social and industrial foundations of life." 
Both men believe in history but with this difference: West 
stresses ancient history, while Flexner would lay chief emphasis 
upon an understanding of the present. 

This foreshadows the main difference in the position of the 
two men. West is an ardent advocate of Latin and Greek while 
Flexner accords them no place in the modern school. Flexner 
would, however, have the classics taught in translation. [171, 
Vol. 25, p. 285.] Flexner and West are both in favor of modern 
languages. Flexner mentions music and art. West mentions 
neither. Both would of course give a place to the mother-tongue. 
With this analysis and comparison one feels justified in concluding 
that both these men are in favor of a curriculum whose chief pur- 
pose is social welfare. 

The New York Times [204, July 6, 1919] comparing West's posi- 
tion with that of H. G. Wells reaches a conclusion almost identical 
with the one just presented, that is, that the positions are not as 
dissimilar as they seem. "The American Classical League," 
says the Times, "in which Dean West is a leading force holds that 
education worthy of the name 'involves training of the mind, not 
for the sake of money, place, or power, but in order to develop our 
boys and girls to their highest mental and moral excellence, to 
make them masters in thought and expression!' From such a 
statement," continues the Times, "to the educational theories of 
H. G. Wells may seem a far cry. But is it? In his recent pam- 
phlet on 'The Elements of Reconstruction' Wells says: 'The 



Selection of Content 119 

antagonism of science versus the classics in education is perhaps 
the most mischievous, and certainly the silliest, of all confusions of 
issue.' The clear issue is that we shall know 'about the mind of 
man, the purpose of his life, the nature of the universe.' Is not 
this also humanism?" 

Whatever else may be said its main purpose is to select subject 
matter according to social values. This is seen still more clearly 
in what follows: "The humanism of Wells," continues the Times, 
"is concerned less with the study of dead languages than the clas- 
sicists would perhaps desire. His idea is that mankind shall study 
man directly, in the closest possible contact. 'Philosophy; the 
history of the world from its problematic beginnings to the 
present; the story that physical science has to teach— ethnology 
and archaeology, anatomy, embryology, biology; these, together 
with the social sciences that necessarily spring out of historical 
and biological teaching, constitute and alone can constitute the 
liberal education which must be the substance of a nation's 
culture.' This is the essence of humanism." 

It seems, therefore, from these two comparisons that it is agreed 
that social values, human interests, human relationships and 
human needs will be the dominating principles by which sub- 
ject matter will be selected in the future both in England 
and America. 

Social Studies Becoming Prominent 

From considerations of this nature certain writers believe that 
"the lesson we all need to learn is a lesson taught by some broad 
social science," and are advocating "that the curriculum be made 
over so that the individual studies shall radiate from and center 
about a study of society." [99, 161.] Judd recommends that 
we add 

to training in the liberal and industrial arts a third and more comprehen- 
sive kind of education. This inclusive education is to give to each indi- 
vidual knowledge of his fellows who work in other spheres. This inclusive 
education is to offer to each member of society a view of his own place in 
the scheme of national life. Seeing himself, the individual will see also 
others and there will grow up in all minds thus trained a sympathy broader 
than that which comes from cultivation of either the industrial arts or the 
liberal arts. . . . It is the duty of our people to know themselves and 
be unsparing in detecting their own failures and wise in evaluating their 
9 



120 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

own successes. In order that this may be possible there must be a steady 
conscious effort to instill into the thinking of every child an appreciation 
of society and its structure. 

Whatever else may be true it seems that this is the standard to 
which all educational movements eventually return, and "each 
revival of the humanistic spirit has been the result of a new revela- 
tion of the way in which men living together may master the 
world" for human ends. [99, 161.] 

Judd's reason for advocating such a change is that he would 
like to see "the children in the lower schools taught about the 
work and interest of their fellows. I should like to have every 
boy and girl know that the federal government is not made up 
merely of Congress and the President and the Supreme Court, but 
that there are at Washington great economic agencies in the 
Department of Agriculture and in the Department of the In- 
terior which are transforming the United States from a frontier 
into a productive civilized land where men may live and the arts 
flourish." [99, 161.] It is coming to be realized that any 
subject that is worth teaching at all may and should be taught so 
as to attain this end. 

The social sciences on account of their peculiar position in a 
socialized curriculum have within the last two decades come into 
very great prominence in the United States and bid fair to rank 
with English as the two leading subjects in the curriculum of the 
American secondary schools. To meet the needs of democracy 
in politics, in economics, and civic enlightenment is their definite 
purpose. A frequently expressed aim of history is to throw 
light on the present, and in the hands of the most advanced his- 
tory teachers it becomes a study of the present interpreted in the 
light of the past. The other social sciences are a direct study of 
the present. These studies are fundamental to the development 
of the new conception of humanism because they touch life at 
every point. 

The reason for thinking that the social sciences will be prominent 
in the future is that everybody in the United States, and to an 
extent also in England, seems to accord them a place in the curricu- 
lum. It was shown above that both Flexner and West give 
them a prominent place in the curriculum. Judd's position has 
already been given. Others take the same position. 



Selection of Content 121 

The process of socialization will require greater emphasis on the social 
studies in our schools. The linguistic-mathematical core of the classical 
curriculum must give way to a social core. It is not to be supposed that 
the languages and mathematics will not find a place in the socialized cur- 
riculum but merely that their place should be subordinated to social studies 
in point of emphasis and requirement. . . . Furthermore since 
mutual dependence has become the central feature of our society the central 
feature of our school course should be the studies most directly fitted to 
develop the spirit of cooperation necessary to live and become efficient 
under such conditions. Community civics and government, history, and 
economics, and such phases of psychology and sociology as deal with 
vocational fitness and the analysis of ordinary social problems must be 
elaborated, applied to actual social conditions, and made to function in the 
formation of social aptitudes and the stimulation of social service. [172, 
July 13, 1918, p. 38.] 

President Butler thinks [33, 68] that Ethics, Economics and 
Politics 

must lie at the heart of an effective education which has learned the lessons 
of the war. To these all other forms of instruction are either introductory 
and ancillary, or complementary and interpretative. Literature, history, 
art, and philosophy will continue to preside over them all. . . . The 
doctrine of reconciliation between Ethics and Economics will include a 
study of how men have attempted to find ways and means of living to- 
gether in harmony and helpfulness, how far they have succeeded, in what 
respects and to what extent they have failed, and how they may carry 
forward the great experiment of their own time to more fortunate results 
by making ethics, economics and politics not three distinct and mutually 
exclusive or contradictory disciplines but rather three aspects of one and 
the same discipline which is that of human life. 

In an investigation which occurred recently in the New York 
Times [May 25, 1919], facts were given to substantiate the claims 
that in the colleges of the United States, "stress is being laid on 
the course which makes for better citizenship and service to the 
state rather than academic scholarship." l The same tendency is 
evident in secondary schools, already history ranks third in num- 
ber of students enrolled. [208, 1917, p. 14.] English literature 
and rhetoric rank first and second, respectively. When one con- 
siders the fact that a short time ago Columbia College disco ntin- 

1 Of course it should be maintained that a pursuit of such studies does not pre- 
clude the acquisition of scholarship, for these studies advance scholarship as 
certainly as anything else. 



122 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

ued its practice of requiring Latin or Greek either for entrance or 
for graduation and has recently established a general information 
course in the social sciences, this course to be required of all 
freshmen, it seems at least an indication that the center of gravity 
is shifting from the classics to social sciences. English has for 
some time in many places in the United States been the only sub- 
ject required of all students, but it is being seriously proposed in 
many places that a certain amount of social sciences should be 
required of all students in the high school. 

The social sciences have not developed such a prominent place 
for themselves in England, but the English are beginning to recog- 
nize their importance. The following quotation shows an atti- 
tude similar to that in America. "No sane man wishes to 
destroy the intellectual discipline of school studies, or imagines 
that complete comprehension of the industrial and political 
world is within the range of school boys ; but the question may be 
asked seriously whether attention should be directed more fully 
to the way in which this civilization of ours has arisen, to the 
great social movements and recent triumphs of recent years, 
and to the immediate problems which will require special 
knowledge, fine temper, and trained judgment for their solution.'* 

[5L447-] 

It is not the aim in the United States to give a "complete 
comprehension" but the "aim of community civics is to help the 
child to know his community life, what it does for him and how 
it does it, what the community has a right to expect from him 
and how he may fulfill his obligations, meanwhile cultivating in 
him the essential qualities and habits of good citizenship." 
[127, 699.] 

According to the Regulation for Secondary Schools for 191 8 in 
England, history is the only one of the social sciences that has a 
place in the curriculum, but much of what is accomplished in the 
United States by the social sciences is attempted in England by 
modern languages, or "Modern Studies" as they are now called. 
The definition of such studies that was given by the Committee to 
Inquire into the Position of Modern Languages in the Educational 
System of Great Britain follows [43, p. xxiii]: "We shall use 
the term ' Modern Studies ' to signify all those studies (historical, 
economic, literary, critical, philological, and others) which are 
directly approached through modern foreign languages. 'Mod- 



Selection of Content 123 

ern Studies' are thus the study of modern people in any and 
every aspect of their national life of which the languages are an 
instrument as necessary as hands, and feet, and heart, and head." 

It is thought that a simple study of the languages is no longer 
sufficient for the needs of modern international democracy. The 
Committee itself explains its position [43, 16]: "The study and 
practice of the use of language as a fine art is an admirable school 
of thought and taste. The study of literature, critical, aesthetic, 
or scientific, should not fail to develop imaginative sympathy, 
and it is one of the principal avenues to the knowledge of a foreign 
people. But the study of words as words, of language as lan- 
guage, of books as books, and the art of the language for its own 
sake, even altogether, form too limited an objective for Modern 
Studies at the university. These studies should be in the widest 
sense historical, and embrace a comprehensive view of all the 
larger manifestations of the past and present life of the people 
selected for study." [43, 16.] "Thus treated, the history and 
literature of a modern people may do for our own pupils what the 
literature of Greece and Rome have done for many generations of 
their most enlightened ancestors." [43, 30.] "The pupils who 
elect to specialize in Modern Studies should not confine them- 
selves to authors whose merit has been approved by time. They 
should read chiefly the best but the new as well as the old. . . . 
If they read the authors from various periods with a receptive 
mind they will insensibly acquire that important part of historical 
knowledge which consists in familiarity with the manners, the 
ways of thought, the ideals, and all the atmosphere of a people as 
conveyed by its literature. But they should also receive by 
instruction the continuous story of the people since it began to be 
a people." [43, 29.] 

The Times Educational Supplement [203, October 24, 191 8] 
dreads the "possible degradation of modern languages to com- 
mercial and utilitarian purposes, no imaginary danger," but 
although the Committee claims that Modern Studies "subserve 
the purpose of industry and commerce" [43, 8] they make it plain 
that "it will not suffice to base the claims of Modern Studies 
solely on the practical needs of individuals or even of the nation. 
We need an ideal such as inspires the highest classical studies. 
The best work will never be done with an eye to material profit." 
[43, 16.] 



124 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

In the United States there is a similar belief. "The study of 
foreign languages does not always, but it ought, do a great deal 
towards widening the mental horizon and deepening the intel- 
lectual life of the learner." [172, March 9, 1918, p. 279.] One 
other quotation will be sufficient to show the American position. 
"When a boy studies literary style, I would have him learn that 
language is the product of social living. I would have him think 
of the influence which spoken and written words exercise in 
moving men to action. I would have him study the printing- 
press and the United States mails. I would have him realize 
that without the mechanical appliances of modern life there 
could be no books or journals. The trouble with the present 
study of words is that very often the pupil has no outlook on the 
social group which is held together by language." [99, 161.] 

The Content of the Course in Science Selected for Its 

Social Value 

The same conception seems to be behind the teaching of science 
both in England and the United States. There are, to be sure, a 
few ardent enthusiasts of science who think of it simply for its 
utilitarian value. Then there are others who recognize that 
there are both useful and cultural elements in science and that it 
should be taught in such a way that each of these values may be 
attained. In other words, science must serve a higher motive 
than commercial and trade relations. Benson says [15, 134-5] 
that "there is something horrible and terrifying in the doctrine so 
often preached, reiterated of course by speaker after speaker at 
the 'Neglect of Science' meeting, that science is to be preferred 
because of its utility. If the choice were between dead classics 
and dead science, or if science is to be vivified by an infusion of a 
commercial utilitarian spirit, then a thousand times rather let us 
keep to the classics as the staple of education." 1 On the other 
hand, the scientist claims that "it is hard to get into the mind of 
the classical headmaster the fact that the man of science is fight- 
ing for the broadening of the basis of education." [203, May 2, 
1916, p. 61.] 



1 Since this was written, however, the ultra-radical claims of science as well 
as of all subjects have been toned down by the conferences which resulted 
in the production of Sir F. G. Kenyon's book, Education, Scientific and 
Humane. 



Selection of Content 125 

Matthew Arnold, long ago when the controversy between the 
classicists and the scientists first became acute, made the state- 
ment that "so long as the realists persist in cutting in two the 
circle of knowledge so long do they leave for practical purposes 
the better portion to their rivals, and in the government of human 
affairs their rivals will beat them." [1383,165.] There seems to 
be a growing realization that this is the case. For "all would 
agree that 'humanistic' studies should be scientific and 'scientific' 
studies humane." [173, 389.] It is now thought that the facts of 
science "become significant and even useful only when they are 
used to illuminate a right view of the purpose of the life of man." 
[203, March 7, 1916, p. 33.] Natural science should, therefore, 
not be substituted for the "humanistic" studies but should be 
complementary to them, [no, n.] The Committee on Science 
complained that "much is given to a narrow classical education 
that does not lead to national service" [203, April 18, 191 8, p. 
169] and it was their belief that "a better service can be done and 
a like refreshment gained by those whom we hope to see educated 
on the wider lines, laid down in our Report. The humanizing 
influence of the subject has too often been obscured. We are, 
however, confident that the teaching of science must be vivified 
by a development of its human interest side by side with its 
material and mechanical aspects, and that while it should be 
valued as the bringer of prosperity or power to the individual or 
the nation, it must never be divorced from those literary and 
historical studies which touch most naturally the heart and the 
hopes of mankind." [44, 19.] The Committee says later in the 
Report [44, 23] that "up to the age of 16, the Science taught 
should be kept as closely connected with human interests as 
possible." Therefore, instead of a conflict between the human- 
ities and sciences, science has now been included among the 
humanistic studies, because it touches life at all points, [no, 5.] 
This conception is also brought out in the following statement 
[203, March 7, 1916 p. 33] "Science may be a way of seeing the 
wonder and glory of the universe, or it may be a way of making 
money, or it may be merely making 'stinks.' We want it to be 
the first of these and not the second and third ; but we want every- 
thing else to be the first of these also." 

To accomplish these purposes science will not be taught simply 
as so many facts and experiments for the pupil to perform but the 



126 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

influence of science on civilization will be a chief part of the study 
of science. For it is thought that "all branches of science can be 
taught so as to indicate the principles of scientific method, and 
thus secure a proper scientific training. If, therefore, the work in 
addition have a definite direct relation to the present day life of 
man, so much the better." [51,448.] This will give the pupil an 
insight into the part that science may play in producing progress. 
The lives of great scientists and how they went about their work 
will be a legitimate part of the course, thus giving a compre- 
hensive conception of scientific method. "Read Archimedes. 
Read the researches of the heroes of science. Read Faraday's 
papers. Take his papers on electrolysis and mark the long pro- 
cession of experiments, the number and wonder of the stuffs, the 
diversity of methods, the trials, failures, uncertainties, doubts 
and suggestions, the atmosphere of discovery. Read his electro- 
magnetic researches and watch the belief, patience, openness of 
mind, inventiveness." [117, 213-14.] 

Such a study would be humanistic in the truest sense of the 
term. Science in America has similar aims. "The indispensable 
counterpart of science teaching as a means of grace and growth is 
the master calling of living, in both of its aspects the individual 
and the collective." [172, Vol. 7, p. 662.] "The expansion of the 
course upward into the study of life — and especially of man and 
his relation to his environment — is a big step in advance." [150a, 
707.] "The aim is to familiarize the pupil with his environment 
and with the laws which govern the world ; to teach him principles 
by a study of natural forms, that he may be master not only of 
himself, but of the resources supplied him." [92a, 796.] "It is 
to be studied in institutions like this which aim at contributing to 
the perfecting of the individual, not because it helps to explain 
the world we live in, to make nature more intelligible, and to teach 
the pupil to grasp one kind of truth." [172, July 20, 1917, p. 62.] 
"They need less the scientific thinking of meditation; they need 
most the scientific thinking of participation in the fundamental 
activities of modern life." [10, 11.] 

The whole "General Science" movement may be said to be an 
attempt to give as far as possible a rational, orderly, scientific 
understanding of the pupil's environment. If it is to be a course 
in general science the human and social element is to be the unify- 
ing factor around which the course is organized. It is not to be a 



Selection of Content 127 

selection of bits from various sciences. It is thought that no 
longer should the attempt be made to make every one a scientist 
but to give him an appreciation of his environment. 

Content of the Course in Manual Training 

Since the new conception of humanism includes doing as well 
as knowing, manual training and home economics have both 
become a part of the curriculum. The reason that manual 
training and not vocational education has been included as an 
integral part of the English program of studies is because manual 
training has come to be considered "an organic part of the edu- 
cative process." Paton [15, 6] explains this position as follows: 
"The child is interested in things. It wants first to sense them, 
or as Froebel would say 'to make the outer inner'; it wants to 
play with them, to construct with them and along the line of this 
inward propulsion the educational process has to act. The 
'thing studies' if one may so term them, which have been intro- 
duced into the curriculum, such as gardening, manual training, 
(with cardboard, wood, metal), cooking, painting, modeling, 
games and dramatization, are it is true later introductions, 
adopted mainly from utilitarian motives; and they have been 
ingrafted on the original trunk, being first regarded as detestable 
extras, but they quickly showed that they were an organic part 
of the real educative process; they have already reacted on the 
other subjects of the curriculum, and have, in the earlier stages 
of education become central. . . . All this is part of the most 
important of all correlations, the correlations of school with life." 
(Italics not in the original.) 

The following quotation sounds like formal discipline but 
behind it the same general idea prevails. "One of the develop- 
ments which we need is the far freer use of manual and productive 
work as a means of education in the strictest sense ; as a means, 
that is, of developing human faculty quite irrespective of the 
practical or commercial value of such faculty when developed." 
[198, 572.] 

In the United States manual training is intended to develop 
social values just the same as other subjects are so intended. 
"When a boy takes a manual training course, I would not only 
liave him study the tools and materials with which he comes in 



128 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

contact, but I would also have him see that tools and materials 
are the instruments which human skills have employed in making 
possible a richer life for the community." [99, 161.] 

The Content of the Course in Home Economics 

In home economics there is the same movement, though some 
deplore the fact that it is not more widespread. In a review of a 
recent text-book on the subject the reviewer says [172, August 3, 
1918, p. 148]: "The pages of this book show clearly that, in 
general, so-called home economics or domestic science consists 
essentially of the technical process of cooking and feeding, gar- 
ment making and repairing, scrubbing and laundry work. There 
is hardly a hint of the child in the home, of social value, of civic 
relationships. It is recipes, and more recipes, cooking and more 
cooking with not a thought given to the intense industrial, com- 
mercial, civic, political and social changes which in recent years 
have shaken the very foundations of the home. . . . The 
same general comment may be made as to the education of girls 
for industrial and commercial pursuits. The narrow technical 
training will no longer suffice." 

Judd's opinion is similar. It is not ability merely to cook and 
sew that is needed in home economics. It is the human side of 
cooking and sewing, a "broad outlook which sees in all domestic 
activity industrial society striving to meet human ends." [99, 
163-1 

The Classics Not Completely Socialized 

It has frequently been claimed especially by the classicists that 
the practical tendency of the age is about to destroy the cultural 
subjects. On the other hand, quite as much complaint has been 
made that the classics, because they are technically taught, do not 
render service in giving an insight of rich significance into the 
present day life of man proportionate to the time spent upon them. 
They do not give a full life experience. The following quotations 
show the trend of the thinking: 

Perhaps no greater mistake in terms is made in our educational practice 
today than to say that the high school student who has had four years of 
Latin, three of Greek, four of English, two of ancient and medieval history,, 
two of mathematics, and one year of mathematical physics has pursued a 
liberal-culture course of study. As a matter of fact, his course has been 



Selection of Content 129 

narrowly technical in that it leads to but few selected occupations; and 
he is in no sense liberally educated, for he knows little about the modern 
world in which he lives. [47, 463. See also 186, 575ff.] 

The classics in the colleges and universities ought, I believe to be taught 
far less as they have been in the past years from the point of view of phil- 
ology, and more from the point of view of humanity, that is, of the thought 
of men as individuals and as communities, especially in their bearing upon 
present day civilization. [216a, 167.] 

Those in whose keeping the classics are placed must fix their minds much 
more on matters of human interests, human conduct, and human feeling, 
and much less on matters of technical linguistic accuracy and skill. 
[33, 76.] 

It is, therefore, fair to contend that the classics are not the only 
means through which humanism may be acquired, that although 
comparative philology may have been the first it is not the last 
word in humanism. 

Since the social sciences and English by their very nature are 
best suited to the kind of treatment here represented, it is prob- 
able that they will constitute the leading subjects in the curricu- 
lum of the future. The classics are certainly losing ground both 
in England and in the United States, if the fact that both Oxford 
and Cambridge in England, and Yale and Princeton, the two 
strongest representatives of classical instruction in the United 
States, are receding from their strict requirements in Latin and 
Greek, is any indication. One need only make a comparison of 
the number of teachers of these subjects with their full classrooms 
with the number of teachers of other subjects with their enrol- 
ment, to see the drift of the times in the colleges and universities. 
The secondary schools sooner or later usually follow the lead of 
the higher schools. It seems certain, therefore, that in the future 
social studies will be prominent and that all others, whatever 
their chief characteristics may be, must be made to contribute to 
the dominant philosophy of the age, that is, socialization. 

Certain Phases of Educational Method Demand That 
Subject Matter Be Socialized 

Besides the preceding discussion the reasons for believing that 
subject matter will in the future be selected according to this 
newer conception of humanism are : (a) The controversy over the 
doctrine of formal discipline, so far as it relates to the curriculum, 



130 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

is being settled on these lines, (b) The same is true as to the 
doctrines of interest and effort. These will be discussed in order. 

One's philosophy of certain phases of educational method may 
influence the choice of subject matter in several ways. If the 
doctrine of formal discipline be accepted at its face value the 
subject matter chosen will be far different from that chosen by 
one who accepts the contrary belief that subject matter should 
be closely related to the needs of the pupil. Form will be stressed 
rather than content. If one accepts the doctrine of effort as 
opposed to interest the subject matter will be different from that 
chosen by one who thinks that effort should be reinforced and 
directed by interest. Also, if one denies in practice that pupils 
differ radically in their makeup, the content of his curriculum will 
probably be different in kind, and it will certainly be different 
in scope. Finally, if the fundamental principle of democracy, 
that of socialization, be accepted, then the subject matter chosen 
will reflect the desire to achieve this aim. 

One of the causes of the failure of the traditional secondary 
school has been a widespread misunderstanding of the meaning 
of mental discipline, and in clearing up this misunderstanding one 
comes around to the view that subject matter should be selected 
according to the principles already enunciated. This misunder- 
standing has arisen from two sources. On the one hand, there 
has been a widespread belief in formal discipline. On the other 
hand, there has been an erroneous and narrow interpretation of 
the contrary position. In either case the work of the school has 
been narrow and specific. Those who have believed in formal 
discipline have thought that there are certain subjects better 
suited for the training of the mind than others. Hence they 
tend to disregard content. As formal discipline has usually gone 
hand in hand with the traditional curriculum, life in a modern 
democracy has had little place in the work of the school. Present 
social and political needs, local, national and international, have 
not been taken into consideration. The only concern for second- 
ary education was, so the advocates of formal discipline thought, 
to bring the mind to a keen cutting edge and all other things would 
be added unto it. The development of insight into the meaning 
of present conditions was not a concern. The outcome of this 
belief was that a few subjects, and they usually of the traditional 
type, have monopolized the curriculum, and have been taught in 



Selection of Content 131 

a narrowly technical manner. (See quotation from Cubberley 
above, pp. 128.) 

It is true that disciplinary values have also been claimed at 
times for almost every one of the secondary school subjects. 
Whenever this was done, however, it was prima facie evidence 
that there is the same lack of connection between the content 
of these courses and life outside of school, as was noted in the case 
of the traditional curriculum. The purpose of the teachers of 
these subjects under such conditions has not been democratic 
needs but to impart subject matter disassociated from a social 
content. Whenever this is the case, even literature, art, and 
religion "are just as narrowing as the technical things which the 
professional upholders of general education strenuously oppose." 

[56, 79-] 

The work of the school will also be inadequate if the opposing 
position is too narrowly interpreted. The revolt against formal- 
ism is so strong that the rebound carries far toward a narrow 
specific discipline. Although the doctrine of formal discipline 
attacked on the ground that it was devoted too exclusively to a 
few subjects and they not connected with life's problems, the 
advocates of specific discipline in trying to be specific have tended 
to set up aims that could be seen and counted. The needs of the 
pupil are interpreted to be only the apparent ones. The primary 
and immediate vocational needs are given undue prominence, 
and the less obvious needs of living with one's fellows, of taking 
one's part in the community in which one lives, of developing 
broad intellectual sympathies, are neglected. 

Both sides of this controversy are coming more nearly to an 
agreement that subject matter should be selected for its social 
values. Traditional studies must be pursued more for the insight 
they give into social affairs than in the past. Gonzalez Lodge, 
[120, 111-121] gives a splendid account of the way in which 
Latin may do this. The specific disciplinists also claim that 
vocational studies (see analysis of Dewey's position in chapter 
IV), home economics and manual training may also do the same 
thing as was shown above. It seems, therefore, that so far 
as subject matter is concerned it is agreed that whatever 
concerns human beings will bring about the most general train- 
ing. The following from Dewey [56, 77] will make the matter 
clear: 



132 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

Such powers as observation, recollection, judgment, aesthetic taste, 
represent organized results of the occupation of native active tendencies 
with certain subject-matters. A man does not observe closely and fully 
by pressing a button for the observing faculty to get to work (in other 
words by 'willing' to observe); but if he has something to do which can 
be accomplished successfully only through intensive and extensive use of 
eye and hand, he naturally observes. Observation is an outcome, a con- 
sequence, of the interaction of sense organ and subject matter. It will 
vary accordingly, with the subject matter employed. 

It is consequently futile to set up even ulterior development of faculties 
of observation, memory, etc., unless we have first determined what sort of 
subject matter we wish the pupil to become expert in observing and recall- 
ing and for what purpose. And it is only repeating in another form what 
has already been said, to declare that the criterion here must be social. 
We want the person to note and recall and judge those things which make 
him an effective, competent member of the group in which he is associated 
with others. Otherwise we might as well set the pupil to observing care- 
fully cracks on the wall and set him to memorizing meaningless lists of 
words in an unknown tongue — which is about what we do in fact when we 
give way to the doctrine of formal discipline. If the observing habit of a 
botanist or chemist or engineer are better habits than those which are thus 
formed, it is because they deal with subject matter which is more signifi- 
cant in life. 

. . . Wherever an activity is broad in scope (that is, involves the co- 
ordinating of a large variety of subactivities), and is constantly and unex- 
pectedly obliged to change direction in its progressive development, 
general education is bound to result. For this is what 'general' means; 
broad and flexible. In practice, education meets these conditions and 
hence is general, in the degree in which it takes account of social relation- 
ships. A person may become expert in technical philosophy, or philology, 
or mathematics or engineering or financiering, and be inept and ill-advised 
in his action and judgment outside of his specialty. If, however, his con- 
cern with these subject matters has been connected with human activities 
having social breadth, the range of active responses called into play and 
flexibly integrated is much wider. Isolation of subject matter from a social 
context is the chief obstruction in current practice to securing a general 
training of the mind. 

Dewey finds that the controversy over the relation between 
interest and effort may be solved in the same way, that is, by 
selecting subject matter so that it will be relevant to the normal 
activities of children, which means in the last analysis, that subject 
matter should be selected for its social values. "The remedy," 



Selection of Content 133 

says Dewey, "is not in finding fault with the doctrine of interest, 
any more than it is to search for some pleasant bait that may be 
hitched to the alien material. It is to discover objects and modes 
of action, which are connected with present powers. The func- 
tion of this material in engaging activity and carrying it on con- 
sistently and continuously is its interest. If the material operates 
in this way there is no call either to hunt for devices which will 
make it interesting or to appeal to arbitrary, semi-coerced effort." 

[56, I49-] 

It seems certain, therefore, that the subjects on which there is 
agreement of this nature will become prominent in the future. 
These subjects, or rather main fields, will, it seems now, be lan- 
guages, English of most importance, social sciences, natural 
sciences, and vocational subjects, and in each of these the domi- 
nant aim will be to show its relation to the life of man. 

In England the social sciences, as such, are not taking such a 
large part in the secondary schools, but in Modern Studies, as has 
been shown, the aim is to study the life of the people who speak 
these languages, both past and present, which is social in its nature. 
According to the Regulations for Secondary Schools for 1918 of 
the English Board of Education the subjects of study are to be: 
English, at least one language other than English, history and 
geography, science and mathematics, art and manual training. 
Just as in the United States these studies are to be pursued for the 
insight they afford into human relationships. The similarities 
between the English and American systems are close. " The 
differences are that England values the traditional and the past 
more than the United States does and does not accord vocational 
subjects the place that the United States does. 



CHAPTER VI 

EDUCATIONAL METHOD 

It has been shown in a previous chapter (Chapter II) that Eng- 
land and the United States are attempting to solve the problems 
of Educational Administration in accordance with democratic 
principles. In later chapters it was likewise shown that in the 
organization and selection of the Program of Studies they are 
attempting to keep the needs of democracy in mind. The third 
element of the educational trinity — Educational Method — is now 
to be considered. It too, when rightly conceived, has a part of its 
own to play in a democratic school system. That is, educational 
method has a part to play over and above the mere impartation of 
information. 

The Function of Educational Method in a Democratic 

School System 

To think independently, to meet life's situations unselfishly, to 
be capable of taking the initiative, to be original, to assume duties 
and responsibilities, are each and every one qualities which are 
considered desirable, if not essential in a well-rounded democratic 
citizenship. It is a correlative function of educational method in 
a democratic school system to provide a medium and regimen in 
which pupils are permitted and encouraged to develop such quali- 
ties, so that every pupil will be living in school a consciously 
social life wherein, as a contributing member, sharing constantly 
in socially educative group activities, he would be learning the 
lessons, seeing the vision and feeling the joy of citizenship within 
an intelligent and well-directed democracy. According to this 
conception educational method is not a mere device to be used as 
a means to some remote end. It may be a direct instrument of 
democratization, nay of the worthy life itself. It is insofar an end 
rather than a means. It is in this respect fundamentally an ex- 
emplification of the conception that living worthily day by day in 
school is within itself a legitimate aim; not, however, without the 
added belief that living worthily in school is the best preparation 
134 



Educational Method 135 

for living worthily after one has left school. In other words, to 
express the same thing in more familiar terms, education is life 
itself rather than a mere preparation for life. 

Educational Method in an Autocracy Contrasted with 
Educational Method in a Democracy 

The ideal of education in an autocracy coincides readily at 
every point with the ideal of life in an autocracy, but hitherto the 
ideal of democracy has not coincided in every particular with the 
democratic ideal of life. Ordinarily our school government has 
been monarchical rather than democratic. In an autocratic school 
system the pupil is trained in habits, attitudes and feelings that 
are suited to life in an autocracy, but in developing a conception 
of educational method that will serve as a direct instrument of 
democratization unthinking obedience to a merely external author- 
ity is an ideal inherited from former autocratic systems that still 
survives. It is, therfore, ill-adapted to modern conceptions of 
social relationships. During the Middle Ages emphasis was 
laid upon institutions as a means of shaping and curbing the 
individual. In every walk of life there was some external author- 
ity to govern and direct the actions of the masses of the people. In 
industry it was the feudal lord ; in politics it was the king and his 
agents; in religion it was the Church. Under these conditions 
unthinking obedience to such external authority was a necessity. 
Not that these people accepted unwillingly such authority but 
that their souls had been stunted through the lack of opportunity 
for growth. Authoritarianism reigned supreme. The education 
of the young was in accord with the spirit of the times. Now, 
however, feudalism is dead. The last of the kings, at least in the 
old sense, are gone. Authority of this kind is everywhere on the 
decline and it is such authority that the allied nations have 
fought to overthrow. A new regime is the order of the day in the 
world outside the schoolroom, but the school, since it, as hitherto 
conceived, is a conservative agency, notoriously lags behind the 
process of development. Educational practices in a democracy 
have not kept pace with the democratic ideal of life. 

Instead of such unintelligent obedience to a merely external 
authority as just described democracy must develop a more intel- 
ligent procedure, obedience to laws and principles well-tested and 
accepted. That is, democracy demands an informed rather than 
10 



136 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

an uninformed procedure. The prevailing rule of life in a democ- 
racy should be intelligent self-direction in a give and take of 
shared experiences. It is not a question of giving commands by 
some and receiving them by others, of obedience or disobedience, 
but intelligent co-partnership, for in a democracy the people must 
both make and obey the laws. In other words, as Judd says, 
{99, 164] "We must develop an educational system which will 
make many people of many minds and many abilities co-workers 
in an intelligent social order." 

On the other hand, so long as people live in groups there will 
always be need of some way of coordinating their actions so that 
they may live in peace and harmony. Such directive agencies 
as the old in relation to the young, of the mature to the immature, 
of the knowing to the ignorant, will always hold an important 
place in society. Education is of necessity by the older and more 
mature for and to an extent imposed upon the immature. This 
means that the teacher must in some measure choose and decide 
for the pupil. However, the necessity of such guidance lends 
itself so readily to the natural disposition of those in authority 
to lord it over those under their control that it tends to develop 
into a system of total direction by the teacher, of complete and to 
a large extent blind obedience on the part of pupils. For this 
reason it is probable that autocratic practices are likely to hold 
out longer in the field of educational method than anywhere else 
in the whole educational program. Educational administration 
and the curriculum, since they are more formal and objective, invite 
corrective criticism and can more readily be put upon a democratic 
basis, but coercion and force of one kind or another still hold sway 
in many classrooms. Although subject matter may be selected 
with nice discrimination to the end that pupils may study about 
the kind of activities that should characterize a democracy, still 
at the same time this same subject matter is sometimes taught 
by methods that dogmatically impose it on them. This may be 
true however accurately the subject matter may have been se- 
lected to meet the needs of democracy. In other words, one may 
believe that pupils should be brought ultimately to live according 
to democratic principles but may afford them little opportunity 
in the schoolroom for living according to such principles, and 
may use the most arbitrary and dictatorial methods in realizing 
this hoped-for result. Whenever democratic policies or informa- 



Educational Method 137 

tion about democracy are thus imposed on others by autocratic 
means, whether in government or education we have one element 
of the educational process, method, facing in one direction, and the 
other, subject matter, facing in the opposite direction. They 
work at cross purposes. 

English and German Practices Compared 

Some of the English writers declare that this is the case in Eng- 
land. For a severe indictment of this kind of procedure the 
following is taken from the Nineteenth Century. [88, 970.] " It is 
here that we are weak as a nation, especially as compared with 
Germany. The German ideal of education coincides at every 
point with the German ideal of life. Our ideal of education, so 
far as we can be said to have one, is opposed to our ideal of life. 
As educationalists we believe in the type of education that Ger- 
many has idealized and transformed into a philosophy of life. 
We believe in dogmatic direction and the discipline of drill." 
This has reference to England but certainly is largely true as well 
of educational practices in the United States. 

The following is in complete agreement with Holmes [203, Octo- 
ber 17, 1918, p. 441]: "It is now too little perceived that it is 
not in virtue of science or knowledge of science or the application 
of them to this or that object that the Germans have grown 
strong. They had grown strong because they had set certain 
ends clearly before them and had sought and used the means by 
which those ends could be achieved. And, what is far more im- 
portant, their ends had been coordinated, unified." Much 
has been said and written in explanation of Germany's strength. 
That offered by these two writers seems to have been accepted 
in certain quarters as assuredly the best. 

In achieving these results Dean Russell of Teachers College is 
of the opinion that German methods have counted for more even 
than the content of the German curriculum. "In the making 
of Germans," he says [164, 120], "little weight is attached to 
the content of the curriculum. What one studies may have an 
important bearing on one's future career. The peasant attends 
one kind of school, the business man another, and the future 
scholar still another, but all must be made first of all Germans. 
It follows, therefore, that the secret of training for the common 
good is to be found in the methods of instruction rather than in 



138 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

its content. Herein is a characteristic of German education which 
in its universality and thorough-going comprehensiveness is not 
approached in any other National system that I have ever known. 
The principle that methods of teaching and modes of discipline 
make the man, while what he learns determines his career, will 
surprise some Americans who have delighted to deride methods 
as a hobby of those who have nothing to teach. Their idolatry of 
German scholarship, moreover, would be more intelligible if they 
knew the significance of German methods of instruction." 

Germany, therefore, had no such conflict in educational princi- 
ples as that described by Holmes as characterizing the English 
educational system. Both the method and the subject matter 
worked harmoniously toward autocracy. The glory of the 
Fatherland, the benevolence of the ruling class, and the suprem- 
acy of the States were the main purposes of the curriculum. On 
the other hand, to train obedient subjects was the chief aim of 
educational method. "By example and precept, by persuasion 
if possible or by force if necessary, the German teacher attained 
the end to which his profession leads 'the making of God-fearing, 
patriotic, self-supporting subjects of imperial Germany.'" [164, 
121.] The teacher's duty was to give instruction in subject 
matter that had been chosen for a special purpose. It is a signifi- 
cant fact that Froebel's philosophy of education with its emphasis 
on self-activity and initiative, desirable qualities in a democracy, 
early gained imperial hostility and has never made headway in 
Germany, but has found its greatest welcome in the democratic 
countries, England and the United States. As the " formal steps " 
of Herbart are especially well-adapted to giving instruction but 
not so well-adapted to developing self-direction and initiative 
the Herbartian methods have had much greater influence in Ger- 
many. These methods are admirably suited to an autocratic 
country. Since England and the United States aim to develop 
an educational method that is as well-suited to democratic ideals 
as the German methods were to autocratic ideals, Froebel's 
philosophy is being emphasized more and more as the years 
pass, but is as yet far from universal acceptance. 1 The main 
trouble with the German system was that its ends were un- 

1 The Herbartian methods had wide sway in the United States in the last 
quarter of the nineteenth century but in recent years what may in general be 
described as Froebel's conception of educational method has been in the 
ascendency. 



Educational Method 139 

wisely chosen. Germany wished to train "obedient subjects" 
not citizens. England and the United States desire most of all 
intelligent citizens not subjects, for the rise of democracy means 
among other things: (1) The development of one's personality 
so that he may choose wisely in accordance with the principle 
that one's conduct should be designed for the good of all ; (2) The 
principle of the autonomous will, the inner acceptance of the outer 
rule. Can a school system develop an educational method of 
such a nature as to achieve these results? 

Present Tendencies in Educational Method in England 

If Holmes is right (see above p. 137) England has not yet 
developed such a conception of educational method. At least 
she has not consciously isolated those aspects of educational 
method that are as suitable for democracy as the German methods 
were for autocracy, and made them the working basis of the whole 
school procedure. The English are, however, beginning to real- 
ize that the corporate life of the school, exemplified since Arnold's 
time by athletics and self-government, can and should penetrate 
into other activities of the school. Thus J. L. Paton [15, 8] 
asserts with regard to its "wider applications, it is capable of trans- 
forming the spirit of the classroom activities as well as the activi- 
ties of the playing field." This phase of English public school 
life has for decades been considered by some as the best part of 
English education. For it tends to put one mainly on his own re- 
sources but at the same time one's activity finds expression in a 
social milieu. "Personality, after all, is best defined as 'capacity 
for fellowship,'" and unless "he functions socially, the individual 
develops into eccentricity, negative criticism, and the cynical 
aloofness of the 'superior person.' " [15, 8.] 

Another growing tendency bids fair to play a much larger part 
in English education in the future than hitherto. This is the 
"movement towards self-expression and self-development — post- 
ulating for the scholar a larger measure of liberty in thought and 
action, and self-direction than hitherto." [15, 7.] Of this move- 
ment Holmes is perhaps the leading spirit. Montessori is having 
considerable influence in the lower schools, the freedom phase of 
her work attracting most attention. This movement has the 
backing of the Workers' Education Association. "We believe," 
writes the Rev. William Temple [219, 325. See also article by 



140 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

G. Bernard Shaw in the same], "that just as education is essential 
to freedom so is freedom essential to education." 

On the other hand, England has her "duty and discipline 
movement" just as the United States has. Sir Dyce Duckworth 
thinks that [64, 334] "there is reason to fear that we are already 
suffering from too much independence granted to young people of 
both sexes, and I think we may note the fruits of this in American 
training which in the main are not exemplary for us in this coun- 
try." The value of obedience is stressed by this writer but he 
does not give a comprehensive plan by which the democratic 
virtues of initiative and orginality are to be obtained. 

It is thought by some of the English writers [15, 8], however, 
that round the movements "towards a fuller liberty of self-fulfil- 
ment, and towards a fuller and stronger social life the form of 
the new system will take shape and grow." " It is a happy omen 
for our democracy that both these complementary movements are 
combined in the new life of the schools. To both appeals, the 
appeal of personal freedom, and the appeal of the corporate life, 
the British child is peculiarly responsive." [15,8.] Little further 
indication of a tendency has been found in English educational 
literature consciously to isolate such socializing principles as are 
prominent in athletics and self-government, and to build round 
them a working philosophy of educational method which will 
serve as a basis for every phase of education in a democracy. 

Tendencies in Educational Method in the United States 

John Dewey. Such is not the case in the United States, for 
there has for years been a strong and growing tendency in the 
United States under the leadership of Dewey, and more recently 
of Kilpatrick, to find an educational method correlative of democ- 
racy in society with the belief that education is life itself rather 
than a mere preparation for life, and that practice in democratic 
living is the best preparation for democracy. Dewey [56, 15] 
makes a distinction between "changes in outer action" and 
"changes in mental and emotional dispositions of behavior." It 
is the latter and not the former that is desirable in a democracy. 
A dog or a horse may be trained to undergo changes in outer ac- 
tion but hardly in mental and emotional dispositions of behavior. 
And a human being may be educated to do both. The danger is 
that one may be trained like an animal rather than educated like 



Educational Method 141 

a human being. "If a parent," says Dewey [56, 15], "arranged 
conditions so that every time a child touched a certain toy he got 
burned, the child would learn to avoid that toy as automatically 
as he avoids touching fire. So far, however, we are dealing with 
what may be called training in distinction from educative teach- 
ing. The changes considered are in outer action rather than in 
mental and emotional dispositions of behavior. The distinction 
is not, however, a sharp one. The child might conceivably gen- 
erate in time a violent antipathy, not only to that particular toy, 
but to the class of toys resembling it. The aversion might even 
persist after he had forgotten about the original burn ; later on he 
might even invent some reason to account for his seemingly irra- 
tional antipathy. In some cases, altering the external habit of 
action by changing the environment to affect the stimuli to action 
will also alter the mental disposition concerned in the action. 
Yet this does not always happen; a person trained to dodge a 
threatening blow, dodges automatically with no corresponding 
thought or emotion. We have to find, then, some differentia of 
training from education." 

This fact constitutes the chief stumbling block to the develop- 
ment of a democratic conception of educational method. A pupil 
may be compelled to perform a certain task and sometimes desir- 
able mental and emotional dispositions of behavior may accom- 
pany changes in outer action and the fact that this is so tends to 
encourage those who have a natural disposition to use force and 
coercion for the most part in dealing with the young. However, 
such desirable changes do not always take place when the pupil 
is under compulsion and even at times most undesirable disposi- 
tions result. As Dewey says [56, 31]: "His instincts of cunning 
and slyness may be aroused so that things henceforth appeal to him 
on the side of evasion and trickery more than would otherwise have 
been the case." 

Dewey concludes, on the one hand, [56, 29-31] that "purely 
external direction is impossible"; that "in the strict sense nothing 
can be forced upon them or into them"; that to some extent, "all 
direction of control is a guiding of activity to its own end ; it is an 
assistance in doing fully what someorgan isalready tending to do." 
On the other hand, Dewey thinks [56, 31] that "the control af- 
forded by the customs and regulations of others may be short- 
sighted. It may accomplish its immediate effect but at the ex- 



142 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

pense of throwing the subsequent action of the person out of 
balance. A threat may, for example, prevent a person from do- 
ing something to which he is naturally inclined by arousing fear 
of disagreeable consequences if he persists. But he may be left 
in the position which exposes him later on to influences which will 
lead him to do even worse things. ... Those engaged in di- 
recting the actions of others are always in danger of overlooking 
the importance of the sequential development of those they direct." 
Dewey seems to summarize his position as follows [56, 32] : 

When others are not doing what we would like them to or are threatening 
disobedience, we are most conscious of the need of controlling them and of 
the influences by which they are controlled. In such cases, our control 
becomes more direct, and at this point we are most likely to make the 
mistakes just spoken of. We are even likely to take the influence of 
superior force for control, forgetting that while we may lead a horse to 
water we cannot make him drink ; and that while we can shut a man up in 
a penitentiary we cannot make him penitent. In all such cases of imme- 
diate action upon others, we need to discriminate between physical results 
and moral results. A person may be in such a condition that forcible 
feeding or enforced confinement is necessary for his own good. A child 
may have to be snatched with roughness away from a fire so that he shall 
not be burnt. But no improvement of disposition, no educative effect, 
need follow. A harsh and commanding tone may be effectual in keeping 
a child away from the fire and the same desirable physical effect will fol- 
low as if he had been snatched away. But there may be no more obedience 
of a moral sort in one case than in the other. A man can be prevented 
from breaking into other persons houses by shutting him up, but shutting 
him up may not alter his disposition to commit burglary. When we con- 
fuse a physical with an educative result, we always lose the chance of en- 
listing the person's own participating disposition in getting the result 
desired, and thereby of developing within him an intrinsic and persisting 
direction in the right way. 

Since this is so, a scientific attitude towards education demands 
a more enlightened procedure than the imposition of a line of 
conduct from above upon pupils. Dewey suggests two steps in 
developing such a procedure. [56, 16.] 

"Setting up conditions which stimulate certain visible and 
tangible ways of acting is the first step. Making the individual a 
sharer or partner in the associative activity so that he feels its 
success as his success, its failure as his failure, is the completing 
step." 



Educational Method 143 

William H. Kilpatrick. The second step is easily recognized 
as essential in the development of morale, which is only an- 
other way of saying morals. No amount of force and compul- 
sion can accomplish the results that morale can. Kilpatrick, 
who has given a more recent expression of the same kind of 
theory, names it "whole-hearted purposeful activity." In order 
that he may define more clearly the problem of educational 
method Kilpatrick describes the typical unit of the worthy 
life and then he organizes his conception of educational method 
around this ideal. He finds this typical unit, as was just said, 
to be "whole-hearted purposeful activity proceeding in a social 
environment." And since he is concerned more particularly 
with democracy he explains what he conceives to be the worthy 
life in a democracy. [112, 322.] "We scorn the man," he says, 
"who passively accepts what fate or some other chance brings to 
him. We admire the man who is master of his fate, who with 
deliberate regard for a total situation forms clear and far-reaching 
purposes, who plans and executes with nice care the purposes so 
formed. A man who habitually so regards his life with reference 
to worthy social aims meets at once the demand for practical 
social efficiency and of moral responsibility. Such a one presents 
the ideal of democratic citizenship. It is equally true that the 
purposeful act is not the unit of life for the serf or slave. These 
poor unfortunates must in the interest of the over mastering 
system be habituated to act with a minimum of their own pur- 
posing and with a maximum of servile acceptance of others' pur- 
poses. In important matters they merely follow plans handed 
down to them from above, and execute these according to pre- 
scribed directions. For them another carries responsibility and 
upon the results of their labor another passes judgment. No 
such plan as that here advocated would produce the kind of docil- 
ity required for their hopeless fate." 

Contrast this ideal of democratic citizenship with that ex- 
pressed in the following quotation which seems to be a contrary 
position [71, 109]: "While it is true that citizens of a democracy 
need to be taught to think, it is even more important, especially 
in the present crisis, (this was written during the war) that they 
be trained to revere and obey." Reverence and obedience are 
of course not within themselves harmful. It depends upon what 
one reveres and obeys. For within any group of people there are 



144 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

many characteristics and institutions that deserve reverence and 
obedience but many that do not deserve reverence nor should 
the commands eminating from them be obeyed. Pork barrel and 
boss rule are instances and if one be taught in advance to obey in 
general there will be many occasions where he will unnecessarily 
surrender his own initiative and responsibility to others. This is 
exactly what is not wanted in a democracy. For democracy 
prizes freedom more than docility, initiative more than automatic 
skill, insight and understanding more than capacity to recite 
lessons or to execute tasks under the direction of others. Democ- 
racy demands not obedience as a general rule of life but intelligent 
self-direction, intelligent choice. It demands a type of procedure 
that will furnish better citizens "alert, able to think and act, too 
intelligently critical to be easily hoodwinked either by politicians 
or by patent medicines, self-reliant, ready of adaptation to the 
new social conditions that impend." [112, 334.] 

It cannot be said that we have ever attained a standard as high 
as this, for a large number of people, clerks, soldiers, school teach- 
ers and those who work for a salary are accustomed to taking 
commands from others and of executing tasks under their direc- 
tion. It is hard to get them to take an attitude of initiative and 
originality, but initiative and the resulting responsibility are 
essential in a thoroughgoing democracy. If one is taught to 
revere and obey "by wholesale" as it were, rather than to use 
intelligent self-direction and choice, an educational procedure 
better suited to autocracy than to democracy would be retained — 
a position from which every effort should be made to escape. 

Instead of this kind of procedure Professor Kilpatrick would 
have the pupil live in school, worthily engaging in purposeful 
activities and developing initiative now. This conception is 
seen in the following statement [112, 323]: "And if the pur- 
poseful act thus makes of education life itself, could we reasoning 
in advance expect to find a better preparation for later life than 
practice in living now? We have heard of old that 'we learn to do 
by doing' and much wisdom resides in the saying. If the worthy 
life of the coming day is to consist of well-chosen purposeful acts, 
what preparation for that time could promise more than practice 
now, under discriminating guidance, in forming and executing 
worthy purposes?" 

There are those, however, who seem to fear the tendencies o£ 



Educational Method 145 

Kilpatrick's line of argument. It is their opinion that we have 
gone too far in the direction of freedom in education ; that we stress 
rights and privileges rather than duties and responsibilities. 
President Hopkins of Dartmouth says [93, 613]: "We have as 
a people specialized so completely in recent years on claiming 
rights, that our senses of obligation and responsibility have be- 
come atrophied." 

Bagley thinks that "contemporary education in spite of its 
prating about social efficiency is individualistic at basis. It 
talks of the common good, but it has no place for the concept of 
duty with its constant dread lest the child may by accident be 
required to do something that he does not want to do, it is gen- 
erating among our boys and girls individualistic doctrines that no 
amount of pupil self-government and no multiplicity of socializing 
devices in the recitation can counteract or cover up." [6, De- 
cember, 1914.] 

However, when Bagley and Judd unite in making the following 
statement they seem to feel that there is no necessary contradic- 
tion between their position and that described above: "Our 
school system," they say [4, 323], "should reflect at every point 
the two fundamental and complementary principles of democ- 
racy — opportunity and obligation, opportunity for individual 
development, coupled with and paralleled by the obligation of 
the individual willingly to learn the lesson that all must learn in 
common if our democracy is to rest on a real community of ideas 
and ideals." 

It seems from the preceding statement that the solution which 
this group reaches is that there should be a just balance between 
habit and deliberate choice, between authority and freedom, 
between discipline and individuality, between opportunity and 
duty. If this is true then it seems that there is no real antago- 
nism between the positions of the two groups of thinkers. No 
American has made more of this social nature of education than 
has Dewey. He and Kilpatrick would, it seems, not object to this 
solution unless it carried with it the belief that in order eventually 
to acquire this balance the pupil should be subjected while in 
school to a total direction by the teacher. He must, they would 
claim, begin to live now the kind of life that it is desired that he 
later lead. "Learn to obey that you may learn to command" 
was a policy of an autocratic regime that they might the more 



146 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

easily exploit a trusting people. This statement is contrary to 
the laws of learning, for one learns to do by doing, to command 
by commanding, to obey by obeying, not by doing the opposite. 

Attempts to Place Educational Method on a Democratic 

Basis 

There is no doubt that a great many American writers and 
teachers are convinced that educational methods should be a 
direct influence for democratization and are making attempts to 
bring this ideal about. In the new school it is expected that the 
pupil will do more of the thinking and planning, more of the talk- 
ing and discussing, while the teacher "will restrict himself to a 
thoughtful stimulation and direction of the process." [64a, x.] 
All that is being done along the line of "socialization," "motiva- 
tion," the "socialized recitation," "pupil self-government," the 
"problem" and "project" method, when examined in their theo- 
retical justification is found to have this purpose behind it. Each 
of these movements has the purpose of developing the pupil for 
democracy in and by means of a democratic medium. 

Of these proposals for educating pupils for democracy the proj- 
ect method, or the purposeful act, because it is more inclusive, 
seems to be attracting most attention at present, and since it is 
more inclusive it will be treated here as typical of the rest in 
ideals and purposes. It is more inclusive because a number of 
important related elements of the educative process are more 
completely unified in this concept. In the words of Kilpatrick 
who has more exactly defined the meaning of this method than 
any other the following is given [112, 320]: 

I began, he says, to hope for some one concept which might serve this 
end. Such a concept, if found, must, so I thought, emphasize the factor of 
action, preferably wholehearted vigorous activity. It must at the same 
time provide a place for the adequate utilization of the laws of learning, and 
no less for the essential elements of the ethical quality of conduct. The 
last named looks of course to the social situation as well as to the individual 
attitude. Along with these should go, as it seems, the important generali- 
zation that education is life — so easy to say and so hard to delimit. Could 
now all of these be contemplated under one workable notion? If yes, a 
great gain. In proportion as such a unifying concept could be found in 
like proportion would the work of presenting educational theory be facili- 
tated ; in like proportion should be the rapid spread of a better practice. 



Educational Method 147 

From this quotation it is evident that the project method is in 
harmony with the ideals that should characterize a democratic 
school system as described above. One of its main purposes is to 
alleviate the ill effects of an educational method poorly adapted to 
life in a democracy. It attempts to see clearly the ideal of the 
worthy life as described by Kilpatrick and to adapt means to 
ends in achieving it. Since the ' purposeful act ' is the most essen- 
tial element in the worthy life it becomes the basis upon which the 
project method is built. 

Now the typical purposeful act is made up of four parts, " Pur- 
posing, planning, executing, and judging," and the pupil should as 
far as possible do each of these for himself. This requires a cer- 
tain amount of freedom, for freedom is necessary if one is really 
and truly to purpose, plan, execute and judge. It is not a ques- 
tion, however, as to whether the pupil shall be left free to do any 
and everything he wishes. That would produce chaos and we 
should not get anywhere in that way. It does mean that the 
vital point of attack is the purposing of the child. Until the 
pupil really purposes in his heart to carry to completion a line of 
activity there is little hope of educating that pupil in that line. 
It is probably true that no one has ever really been educated in 
any line until he in some way either of his own free will did pur- 
pose to be educated, or was led by suggestions, questions or stim- 
ulations to purpose. After the child has in some way purposed, 
this purpose will give unity and coherence to his planning, exe- 
cuting and judging. The teacher's function then is to make his 
first and main point of attack on the purposing of the student. 
Get purposes going somehow, should be the watchword. Then 
the teacher should if necessary enrich this purpose. The same 
things may be said of the teacher's function in the pupil's plan. 
If the student is capable his plan will likely be rich in significance. 
If he is not so capable his teacher may need to render more assist- 
ance, in the form of suggestions, questions, stimulations, etc., but 
at the same time the teacher should take care that the activity 
of the child be not crushed or he come to depend too much on the 
teacher. The same will apply to the child's executing and judg- 
ing. In other words, it is in the last analysis the child's purpose, 
the child's plan, the child's executing, and the child's judging that 
is important ; but this does not mean that the teacher shall stand 
idly by and let the child go his own way. The teacher's role is to- 



148 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

enrich the meaning and significance of the activity, to encourage 
and assist. The balance is very delicately drawn. To work 
with and not for the child, to assist and not carry, to keep his ac- 
tivity, that is, his purposing, planning, executing and judging, at 
a high pitch and at the same time directed toward a well-defined 
end is the acme of good teaching. 

It was said above that the main point of attack in all good teach- 
ing is the pupil's purposing and that the teacher should get pur- 
poses somehow or other. There are some ways, however, better 
than others for getting purposes. If a scale be drawn with utter 
compulsion at one end and "ethical identification with the group" 
at the other, with praise, approval, cajolery, flattery, fear, threats, 
etc., between, it would be found that those students who would 
have to be dealt with on the basis of utter compulsion would not 
be so easily educated as those at the other end of the scale, but if 
compulsion should prove the only means to get them to purpose 
then compulsion and coercion should be used. It should, how- 
ever, be recognized that this is seldom the only means of dealing 
with pupils who have progressed farther along the scale. Just as 
high a means should be used as possible, all the time working 
toward the upper end of the scale. If the teacher as a rule ap- 
peals to the pupil on the basis of coercion and fear some of the 
pupils will be injured for they would be educated from a higher to 
a lower stage. It is the inability of teachers to see education in 
its totality that causes so much confusion. One appeals on the 
basis of coercion solely and all those pupils who might be appealed 
to on a higher basis will be pulled down to a lower level, while 
another is so afraid of the lower rungs of the scale that certain 
pupils go untouched and unmolested. This is perhaps the reason 
why there are so many conflicting opinions in regard to educa- 
tional methods. One teacher stresses one part of the scale while 
another stresses another part. 

There is no assurance that any and every teacher can get pur- 
posing, and there is none that if a teacher does get purposing the 
purposes will be worthy, but there is every assurance that if the 
pupil does wholeheartedly purpose all the factors for effective 
education are present. 



Educational Method 149 

The Purposeful Act as a Corrective of the Misconception 
of the Doctrine of Interest and Effort 

When the project method is examined for its possible results 
one finds that it tends to remedy many of the defects of the tradi- 
tional secondary school, and since it proceeds in a social environ- 
ment it also educates the pupil for group life, for cooperation, and 
hence for democracy. One of the causes of the failure of the 
traditional school has been due to a misunderstanding of the 
relation of "interest" and "effort" in education. Another has 
been the widespread belief in the doctrine of formal discipline. 
It can be shown that the project method will eliminate many of 
the defects of school practice. As regards interest and effort 
there has been too much dualism between the two in the thinking 
of school men. Those who advocate interest have too often 
been unable to see anything but "drudgery" and "disagreeable- 
ness" in a doctrine of effort. They forget the possibility of 
entering wholeheartedly into an undertaking, as Edison did when 
he was inventing the electric light, or the engineers did while they 
were inventing the Liberty Motor. It is exactly under such con- 
ditions that true effort is best found. Those who contend for the 
traditional curriculum are to some extent to blame for this atti- 
tude, for they have too often claimed as one of the virtues of this 
unattractive subject matter that it required hard work, effort, 
"uncoaxed and uncomplimented." They leave out the purpose- 
ful part of the activity. 

On the other hand, the advocates of effort have felt that the 
doctrine of interest would lead inevitably into "soft pedagogy." 
They do not wish the pupils to be "fed with a spoon." They too 
forget that a pupil may enter wholeheartedly into an activity and 
in so far are anxious to push the work themselves. This state- 
ment is repeated because it is in wholehearted purposeful activity 
that each side may find the solution to the difficulty. Certain 
shortsighted advocates of the doctrine of interest have to a large 
extent been to blame for the attitude of their opponents. They 
have tried to make subject matter selected without any regard 
to its suitability for the pupil's stage of development or with- 
out relation to those things with which the pupil is familiar 
the basis for schoolroom procedure. Having selected the sub- 
ject matter with a view to its supposed future usefulness they 



150 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

have then proceeded to find devices by which the pupil might 
be instructed as easily as possible in this subject matter. In 
this way they have tried to "make it interesting" for the pupils. 
They have "sugar-coated"; they have amused; they have en- 
tertained; and when the pupils seemed interested, they took 
it to be a sign of success, forgetting that they seem just as 
interested at a vaudeville theater. These misguided teachers 
have thus selected all kinds of devices by which the pupil might 
get along with as little effort as possible. 

Interest and Effort are Mutually Complementary . There has 
too often been a thorough misunderstanding of the relation be- 
tween these two aspects of method, instead of seeing that the 
two are really complementary aspects of the same on-going move- 
ment, that true interest is the sign of real motive and should in 
turn mean more effort. This is but the same tendency conceived 
as pushing ahead in the face of difficulties and should result in 
worth while purposes. From such a procedure joy and happiness 
will result, and be an impetus for still more effort. The tendency 
has been to make the two antagonistic to each other, but as a 
matter of fact they are supplementary to each other. In explana- 
tion, take the case of Edison inventing the electric light. No one 
doubts that he worked, and worked hard, that he put forth effort 
as few men can. The motive force back of it all was, however, 
one with his absorbing interest in the subject, so absorbing that 
he forgot everything else. In other words, his interest created 
effort, and effort put forth to accomplish a definite purpose brought 
with it satisfaction at work well done, thus arousing more interest 
which created more effort, etc. This is wholehearted purposeful 
activity. 

This is the view of interest taken by Dewey. "To be inter- 
ested," he says [56, 148], "is to be absorbed in, wrapped up in, 
carried away by, some object. To take an interest is to be on the 
alert, to care about, to be attentive. We say of an interested 
person both that he has lost himself in some affair and that he has 
found himself in it. Both terms express the engrossment of the 
self in an object." 

This is not the view of interest that those have in mind when 
they speak of interest in a depreciatory way. Interest is then 
taken to mean "merely the effect of an object upon personal 
advantage or disadvantage, success or failure. Separated from 



Educational Method 151 

any objective development of affairs, these are reduced to mere 
personal states of pleasure or pain. Educationally, it then 
follows that to attach importance to interest means to attach 
some feature of seductiveness to material otherwise indifferent; 
to secure attention and effort by offering a bribe of pleasure. 
This procedure is properly stigmatized as 'soft' pedagogy; as a 
'soup-kitchen' theory of education." [56, 149.] Dewey adds 
[56, 150]': "To make it interesting by extraneous and artificial 
inducements deserves all the bad names which have been applied 
to the doctrine of interest in education." 

The project method since it proposes to make wholehearted 
purposeful activity the basis for educational procedure makes 
easy the elimination of this dualism between interest and effort. 
For no one can be both wholeheartedly and purposefully active 
without becoming engrossed in the activity, that is, without being 
interested in his purpose to the extent of working at it with all his 
might. In other words, it would not be interest to the neglect of 
effort and vice versa but both to maximum degree. There is no 
real antagonism between the two, but through interest the pupil 
persists in the face of difficulties, that is, he puts forth effort, 
while difficulties successfully overcome result in satisfaction and 
keep the interest at a high pitch all the time. 

From the standpoint of a purely mental and psychological 
development there is little doubt that this is true, but the race 
has placed, and continues to place, such value upon certain 
attainments that all would agree that those things must be at- 
tained at any cost. It is conceivable though not probable that a 
pupil might be better developed mentally at the age of fourteen 
if he should not stop to learn to read and write, but few educators 
would be willing to take the risk. Society demands reading and 
writing. Suppose now that one's purposing, one's native inter- 
ests, never led a pupil into reading and writing. The question 
thus developed is not, therefore, one of effort for all agree to 
that. The question is whether the pupil's native interests, needs 
and present powers shall be a factor, and to what extent a con- 
trolling factor in determining what the pupil shall do in the 
schoolroom; shall we attempt to use the interests and impulses 
which already move a pupil to action or disregard them? One 
side would say that a pupil should learn to do what he ought to 
do when he ought to do it, whether he wishes to or not. This 
11 



152 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

side may go so far as to say that the pupil should learn to wish to 
do what he ought to do when he ought to do it. President Lowell 
of Harvard is, for instance, of the opinion, that "every young 
man needs to acquire a habit of concentration, and a devotion to 
purpose without considering too much whether he enjoys the 
process, or whether he himself always perceives at the moment 
its direct relation to what is to come afterward. . . . He 
must learn to put forth effort, because he has faith in the end to 
l>e attained, not because the means to that end suit his taste." 
|i2oa, 621.] 

And further in the same article [120a, 621] he says: "A man's 
education ought to teach him not to seek for the things that will 
entertain or interest him, and avoid others; but to take an interest 
in, and throw his force into, whatever is best for him to do." 

Lowell here seems to consider that the pupil's interests are not 
the true basis for the selection of subject matter. He would, 
however, consider it fortunate if the student might select in line 
with his interests and felt needs rather than contrary to them. 
He would only contend that the pupil's interests should not be 
the final basis for determining the activities in which he should 
engage. 

On the other hand, Eliot is of the opinion that the surest way 
of eliciting effort is to take advantage of interests which the 
pupil already has. He says [66, 360], "that power to apply one's 
self and to work hard mentally is the main object of education; 
but nearly everybody also has come to know that inspiration or 
stimulation of interest in any mental work will produce this power 
to work hard more quickly and more thoroughly than any driving 
process, no matter what the means of compulsion — rattan, ruler, 
staying after school, holding up to ridicule, deprivation of play 
or holidays, or copying pages of French or Latin." Nothing has 
been found in this investigation to indicate that educational 
leaders hold a different view. 

Dewey is of similar opinion, as appears in the following [60, 23; 
and 34-35]: "I know of no more demoralizing doctrine — when 
taken literally — than the assertion of some of the opponents of 
interest that after subject-matter has been selected, then the 
teacher should make it interesting. This combines in itself two 
thoroughgoing errors. On one side, it makes the selection of 
subject-matter a problem quite independent of the question of 



Educational Method 153 

interest — that is to say of the child's native urgencies and needs; 
and, further, it reduces method in instruction to more or less 
external and artificial devices for dressing up the unrelated 
materials, so that they will get some hold upon attention. In 
reality, the principle of 'making things interesting' means that 
subjects be selected in relation to the child's present experience, 
powers, and needs; and that (in case he does not perceive or 
appreciate this relevancy) the new material be presented in such a 
way as to enable the child to appreciate its bearings, its relation- 
ships, its value in connection with what already has significance 
for him. It is this bringing to consciousness of the bearings of the 
new material which constitutes the reality, so often perverted 
both by friend and foe, in 'making things interesting.' " 

He says further [60, 34-35]: "The mistake . . . consists 
in overlooking the activities in which the child is already en- 
gaged or in assuming that they are so trivial or so irrelevant 
that they have no significance for education. When they are 
duly taken into account the new subject-matter is interesting on 
its own account in the degree in which it enters into their opera- 
tion. The mistake lies in treating these exciting activities as if 
they had reached their limit of growth ; as if they were satisfactory 
in their present shape and simply something to be excited; or 
else just unsatisfactory and something to be repressed." 

The Purposeful Act as a Corrective of Misconceptions 

of Discipline 

The project method will also go a long way toward eliminating 
another of the causes of the failure of the traditional school. 
This is the widespread faith in the value of coercion and driving 
generally. The question of the value of military training and 
discipline, has, as might have been expected, come prominently 
to the fore during the war. It was noticed how much could 
be learned in a short time under military organization, and 
the natural conclusion was that by driving and compulsion 
more could be learned in the same time than in any other 
way. Those who held this position failed to take all the 
elements into consideration. In the first place there was a 
definite purpose in mind which the soldier understood and 
appreciated. To accomplish this purpose the soldiers entered 
wholeheartedly into their work. There was a strong "inner 



154 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

urge" animating those in training. The mind 'set' of the soldiers 
was an item that could not be disregarded. The military organ- 
ization was only a framework in which this 'inner urge' might 
express itself. As soon as the armistice was signed there was a 
sudden change and no amount of driving and compelling was as 
efficacious as before. There was not such rapid learning after 
that. [113, December 1, 1918.] 

The final decision on this question of discipline will, it seems, be 
very much the same as wholehearted purposeful activity. By 
the project method, so its advocates think, the pupil's mind will 
be disciplined in the only way in which a mind can be disciplined, 
that is, by engaging it in purposeful acts; at least, disciplined for 
the kind of life needed in a democracy. The very nature of 
democracy requires that its members shall have purposes and be 
free to plan how they may carry their purposes into execution, so 
long as their purposes and plans are in line with the good of the 
whole. Democracy demands a constructive program of all its 
members. In other words, the only kind of discipline that is 
worth while is that which enables a person to "purpose, plan, 
execute, and judge" in a social environment. At every step in 
working out a project the student must think, and hence, the 
type of activity proposed by the advocates of the project method 
is essential in developing the kind of mental training suitable in a 
democracy. 

The issue, therefore, in the question of educational method in 
a democratic school system is not whether there shall be effort, 
vigorous, wholehearted effort. All agree to that. The issue is 
how to secure it. One side would select activities and problems 
of such a nature as to get the pupil engrossed and wrapped up in 
his work. They believe it more probable that vigorous activity 
will more likely be secured if the native tendencies, interests and 
needs of the pupil are made use of. The other side seem rather 
to believe in the dead lift of the will. The pupil must do some 
things in life that he does not want to do and, therefore, he should 
practice now so they contend. The former would say that this 
does not achieve the desired results, unless beginning as a disagree- 
able task it quickly develops into a genuine case of wholehearted 
purposeful activity. Otherwise what Thorndike calls the law of 
effect is disregarded. Going through a task against the grain 
may produce an attitude of distaste and permanent annoyance.. 



Educational Method 155 

and hence of idleness and laziness. Practice under such condi- 
tions does not make perfect. If the pupil has been practiced in 
seeing the various possibilities of his purposes and plans in their 
fulness, of becoming engrossed and wrapped up in the develop- 
ment of his purposes, then, so it is thought, he will develop the 
habit of looking for such a state of absorption in all he undertakes. 
"There were many interesting things in working out the other 
project, I guess they will be here too," will be the pupil's attitude. 

The development of such an attitude as this is what Kilpatrick 
calls [112, 326] a concomitant value of the project method. Other 
such values may also result, such as, faith in one's ability to carry 
to completion an activity once it is undertaken ; the determination 
not to be overcome by an obstacle; patience; endurance in the 
face of difficulties. This may still not be the total possibility of 
the project method, that is, of wholehearted purposeful activity, 
but it takes into consideration much more than the mere primary 
responses that are necessary for the bare completion of a task. 
Whether or not the pupil will thereby be developed in ideals of 
"duty and discipline" may remain a disputed point, but the 
advocates of the project method see no conflict between the ideals 
of a freer development and that of duty and discipline. In fact 
they expect a better sense of duty and a more intelligent discipline 
to be developed thereby. At least they think that the educational 
outlook from such a procedure is much broader than will be the 
case when a doctrine of discipline, especially of the formal type, 
is rigidly adhered to; and also when the position of specific disci- 
plines is too narrowly interpreted. The project method when so 
conceived is not a device to be used as a means to an end. It is a 
fundamental conception of the right way to live. One is prepar- 
ing for democracy by living in a democratic manner day by day. 
That is education, is life itself, rather than a mere preparation for 
life. 

It will be a great gain for democracy if an educational method 
for secondary schools can be developed so that pupils may be 
educated in the schools to the point that they will be sufficiently 
intelligent to take their places as efficient citizens in a democracy. 
This will require, not servile obedience to another, thus leading 
the way to exploitation, nor yet a capricious regard for one's 
own whims and passions, thus breaking down every possibility of 
a strong system of cooperation among the members of democracy, 



156 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

but an intelligent self-direction and an intelligent cooperation; 
both a give and a take in a shared experience. Both England and 
the United States seem inclined to search for an educational 
method as well suited for democracy as Germany's was suited for 
autocracy, but at present such attempts seem to be still in the 
experimental stage. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE MEANING OF SECONDARY EDUCATION IN 
A DEMOCRACY 

Changes of widespread influence are taking place in the pro- 
gram of secondary education as regards Educational Adminis- 
tration, the Organization and Selection of Subject Matter, and 
Educational Method as shown in previous chapters. These 
changes, in some cases even to the point of confusion, are taking 
place in every sphere of educational activity especially in the 
United States. In England the situation has been more stable, 
but even there old ideals are breaking down. In the United 
States change is the ever present rule in every walk of life, and 
adjustment to changing needs is the outstanding feature of the 
educational situation. President Hadley, in describing the 
American situation, has said [84, 107]: "We have never been 
quite sure what was required or expected of our high schools and 
colleges. We were in the position of a rifleman shooting at sev- 
eral different targets and never definitely deciding which one he 
should try to hit." Consequently, new principles have been 
promulgated, new standards set up, new plans made, and prin- 
ciples, standards and plans scrapped together and a new start 
made. [161, 370.] 

As a result of this ever present tendency to remodel the school 
program all kinds of educational policies and all kinds of educa- 
tional practices have been advocated. Only one item in the 
philosophy of secondary education in the United States seems to 
be definitely fixed and settled. This is universal free secondary 
education, which if accepted inevitably leads to wide diversity in 
educational practice, unless guided by a clearly conceived and 
definitely stated philosophy of secondary education. This is 
exactly what we do not have either in England or the United 
States. [141, 261. Also 14, 1293.] 

A Comprehensive Theory of Secondary Education in 
the Making 

The philosophy of secondary education is not yet made but in 
the making. Confusion in educational ideals and values must 

i57 



158 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

be added, therefore, to the other indications of a confused state of 
affairs in educational matters. Fortunately, a new philosophy 
of secondary education is developing but before it takes final 
shape, many traditional ideals and customs will have to be recast 
so that they will be in harmony with the needs of democracy. 
The old conception of a liberal education and of culture must be 
reformulated and such reformulation is taking place. The whole 
conception of humane studies must be re-examined, and new aims 
and new standards must be set up to the end that the results at- 
tained may be not less but more cultural, not less but more 
humane. 

Considerations presented in the preceding chapters indicate 
that the education of the future will be based on a new conception 
of the place and function of education in a democratic society. 
This new conception of education has been variously termed "new 
humanism" or "social efficiency" or even as "education for 
human ends broadly conceived." The name is of little signifi- 
cance, the conception is all important. There are three main 
characteristics of this conception, (a) From the social stand- 
point the education of the future is to be an engine of social prog- 
ress rather than a mere transmitter of the heritage of the past. 
(b) Its dominating purpose is an intelligent participation in con- 
temporary life, (c) From the standpoint of the individual, edu- 
cation is to be conceived as a process of growth or as " activity 
leading to further activity." These characteristics constitute a 
conception of education that purposes to make of itself the con- 
scious directive agency in building a new civilization based on 
democracy. Its ideal is the past and the present and the future 
for social service. It purposes mainly, however, to build a civili- 
zation rather than to admire past civilizations. 

Building a Worthy Civilization as an Aim in Education 

This new conception of humanism is just as much concerned 
about human beings as any other conception of humanism. Per- 
haps it would be safe to say that it is even more concerned than 
other conceptions as it recognizes the welfare of all classes of 
people. In fact, it will include all those things of interest to 
man, all that makes for human welfare to-day, and will attempt 
to make all such activities significant to pupils in the present. 
All subjects will be treated so as to develop an insight into human 



Meaning of Secondary Education 159 

relationships, human interests and human needs. This concep- 
tion will not, as the term " humanism" might indicate, necessarily 
favor the classicist or the "humanist" so-called, because a pro- 
gram of study selected by them may unduly emphasize the re- 
mote past at the expense of the near past and the present, of the 
acquisition of information at the expense of constructive thought 
and activity. It will not necessarily rule out of consideration the 
vocationalist, for trades, vocations, industries and occupations 
may be pursued because such studies when pursued for their 
social significance may enrich very markedly one's understanding 
of a most important part of the life of man. (See exposition of 
Dewey's views in Chapter IV.) It will rule out each of these 
groups whenever the type of education advanced by them is not 
designed for human ends broadly conceived. "Education for 
human ends broadly conceived " is only another way of expressing 
the new conception of education here under consideration. It is 
thought that a subject is worthy of study only as it has this broad 
outlook and that all subjects that are worth teaching at all may 
and should be taught so as to bring out their human relationships. 

So far there is no difference between this conception of human- 
ism and any other, but it does not, as the older conception of 
humanism did, revert to a past age for its inspiration. One 
writer explains the difference as follows [213, 670]: "The 
'new humanism' that is needed in the twentieth century differs 
in several respects from the humanism of the Renaissance. In 
the first place, the men of the Renaissance had to return exclu- 
sively to the life of the Greeks and Romans to find worthy cultural 
achievements to study and emulate. We now have in addition 
the cultural achievements of recent centuries." 

This in part explains the difference between the new and old 
conceptions of humanism but it does not go far enough. The 
new conception is anticipatory rather than reminiscent, and it 
hopes to refine the social heritage as it transmits it. The ten- 
dency to revert to the past for one's inspiration explains much of 
the condemnation of the present age for its industrial and com- 
mercial tendencies. When such condemnation is made, present 
crude conditions are compared with past accomplishments. The 
ideal of civilization that such men had was so colored by what they 
knew of past ages, that they tended to emphasize the crudeness of 
the present and to idealize the attainments of the past. They 



160 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

did not emphasize the possibilities for future development; that is, 
what was capable of becoming. They admired the gems that had 
been polished and brought to perfection. They did not see the 
diamond in the rough. The following is a case in point. It is 
claimed [15, 1] that the nineteenth century "with all its brilliant 
achievements and scientific discovery and increase of production 
was spiritually a failure. The sadness of that spiritual failure 
crushed the heart of Clough, turned Carlyle from a thinker to a 
scold and Matthew Arnold from a poet into a writer of prose." 

There is no doubt that the nineteenth century did create a 
situation different from any in the world's history and that there 
was much in it that fell short of spiritual ideals but there is like- 
wise no doubt that out of that situation there were possibilities for 
developing as high a degree of culture and civilization as the 
world has known. If it was spiritually a failure it was because 
there were certain forces at work which could not be, or were not, 
directed to the accomplishment of this purpose. The conception 
of education that is here under consideration proposes to find out 
what these forces are, to get them under control, and direct them 
toward the attainment of human ends. Its chief emphasis is on 
building, on becoming a directive agency for social progress. 

Dewey agreeing in the main that the present age is crude, that 
we have "no culture of our own" and "can neither beg nor bor- 
row one without betraying both it and ourselves" declares that 
there is nothing left for us to do but to build one of our own. The 
beginning of such a culture "would be to cease plaintive eulogies 
of a past culture, eulogies which carry only a few yards before they 
are drowned in the noise of the day, and essay an imaginative in- 
sight into the possibilities of what is going on so assuredly although 
so blindly and crudely. . . . To transmute a society built on 
an industry which is not yet humanized into a society which 
wields its knowledge and its industrial power in behalf of a demo- 
cratic culture requires the courage of an inspired imagination." 
[55, 215.] 

Judd seems to be in complete agreement with Dewey's position. 
"Our modern humanism after the great war will not turn back to 
civilizations of the past, for there was no true democracy in 
earlier days. We must build in the future a social structure for 
which there is no pattern. The humanism of the future will be de- 
pendent, not on imitation, but on self-determination." [99, 161.] 



Meaning of Secondary Education 161 

Such an ideal is exactly what must be accepted if education is 
to be an engine of social progress rather than a mere transmitter 
of the heritage of the past. This would make education anticipa- 
tory, forward-looking rather than reminiscent. Those who ac- 
cept this conception would claim that our age is crude not because 
we have not studied about past ages but because we have not 
learned that every great age of culture has made its education 
anticipatory rather than reminiscent. They have built their civil- 
ization out of the heart of the present with a look to the future. 
Only by meeting their present problems as well as and as skill- 
fully as they could, have they been able to develop a high degree of 
culture. This was true of the Periclean Age, the Gothic Builders, 
the Renaissance. The same is true of any age. 

Social Participation as an Aim in Education 

The quotations from Dewey and Judd show that social progress, 
social building, is the aim of the new conception of education. To 
achieve this broader aim social participation in contemporary life 
is necessary. Mr. Cloudesley Brereton [26, 13 10] asks this 
question: "When will people remember that the intellectual and 
the aesthetic sprang originally and is forever springing out of the 
utilitarian, and that all art and intellect which are not constantly 
renewing their contact with the utilitarian and with daily life must 
inevitably perish of pernicious anaemia?" This is taken to mean 
that education should make the present its point of departure 
and that building from the present to the future should be its 
main purpose. 

Mr. A. Clutton-Brock states that "functional" beauty pre- 
cedes and is the origin of "artistic" beauty and enlarges upon this 
position as follows: "But how does this functional beauty come 
into objects of use?" he asks [39, 74] and answers the question 
as follows: "It comes when those objects are designed as well as 
they can be designed for their purpose, and made as well as they 
can be made. It is the result of science and of labor that spare 
no pains in a practical task. And then the man of science turns 
into the artist because he recognizes beauty and values it. It is 
the reward of his work, and expresses his thankfulness for it and 
his delight in it is his art. So it was with the great Gothic build- 
ers who were impelled on by their passion for their own science of 
building and who gave thanks for the beauty of that science in 



1 62 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

their art." Again he says [39, 76]: "It is always out of works 
of utility, achieved as well as they can be achieved with the best 
conscience of the designer and the workman, that beauty grows, 
just as it grows out of the utilities of nature"; and [39, 75] "We 
never think of the engineer as the man who ought naturally and 
inevitably to become an artist. The artist, in the arts of use, is 
to us one who designs not objects of use so much as ornament. 
If he designed plain objects of use perfectly fitted for their func- 
tion we should not think of him as an artist, even tho he laid the 
most exquisite and delighted emphasis on their functional beauty." 

Bonser has expressed a similar view. ' ' We have about learned , ' ' 
he says [21, 159], "that we do not get culture by the study of 
culture subjects. Culture is rather the quality and refinement 
and richness of daily life as it is lived in occupation, in citizenship, 
in the home, in hours of leisure." 

Mr. Clutton-Brock has isolated for emphasis certain elements 
which are vital to the new conception of humanism. "It (func- 
tional beauty) comes when those objects are designed as well as 
they can be designed for their purpose, and made as well as they 
can be made." " It is always out of works of utility, achieved as 
well as they can be achieved with the best conscience of the de- 
signer and the workman, that beauty grows." These statements 
are exactly in accord with those of Dewey and Judd. These are 
the elements that have always made for growth and development 
in the past. Our museums have great numbers of works of art 
from the silversmiths and goldsmiths and other workers of the 
Middle Ages which are admired even to the present day just be- 
cause they were " designed as well as they could be designed, and 
made as well as they could be made." The new conception of 
humanism makes its attack at this point. It proposes to build 
a civilization no less worthy than that of any past age. Pupils 
will be trained in school "to do better in life what they are going 
to do any way," and out of this kind of procedure a higher civili- 
zation will inevitably grow. 

Add to these two items the expressions "functional," and "de- 
signed for their purpose 1 ' and the core of the modern conception 
of humanism is given. One's work is to be done as well as it can 
be done, it is to be purposeful, and it is forward looking rather than 
backward looking, that is, it is building as well as it can in the 
present for the future. Such a conception requires that educa- 



Meaning of Secondary Education 163 

tion be constructive as well as informational, that participation in 
contemporary life be a vital concern of education. Participation 
of course implies intelligent comprehension. In the past the 
definition of humanism came to be almost, if not quite, synony- 
mous with "a knowledge of the best that has been said and done 
in the past," and at times it was narrowed still more to include 
only the remote past. When such was the case education was not 
junctional, it was not purposeful, it did not always enter into con- 
temporary life. There was a dualism between works of art and 
works of utility; between labor and leisure. Such a definition 
would inevitably develop sooner or later a belief in art for the 
sake of art, or knowledge for the sake of knowledge. It would 
not be functional or purposeful. 

Art for Art's Sake Unsatisfactory as Aim in Education. Such 
a definition does not satisfy modern democratic needs, first be- 
cause it does not include building as we have seen; secondly, 
because it does not include social participation but makes informa- 
tion or knowledge the sole criterion of culture. It puts no em- 
phasis on doing and hence tends to exclude the working class from 
the cultured group. It is a survival of past conditions when so- 
ciety was divided into laboring and leisure classes; but in a 
democracy there should be no such cleavage. A leisure class has 
no place in a democracy. It is demanded that every one should 
do something in the world's work, hence doing is now included 
in the conception of humanism. By the older conception of 
humanism one's daily work, except in favored professions, was 
considered to have no cultural value. 

"Dislike to employ scientific knowledge as it functions in men's 
occupations is still a survival of an aristocratic culture. The no- 
tion that ' applied ' knowledge is somehow less worthy than ' pure ' 
knowledge, was natural to a society in which all useful work was 
performed by slaves and serfs, and in which industry was con- 
trolled by models set by custom rather than by intelligence. 
Science or the highest knowing, was then identified with pure 
theorizing, apart from all application in the uses of life; and 
knowledge relating to useful arts suffered the stigma attaching to 
the classes who engaged in them." [56, 268.] 

By the newer conception whenever one's work develops an in- 
sight into social meanings it is humane. Knowledge is then 
considered "humanistic in quality not because it is about human 



164 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

products in the past, but because of what it does in liberating 
human intelligence and human sympathy. Any subject matter 
which accomplishes this result is humane, and any subject matter 
which does not accomplish it is not even educational." [56, 269.] 

The conception of the function of education as building a new 
civilization is far different from the conception of education as 
"art for art's sake." The former requires that definite purposes, 
objectives be set up and attained. The latter sets up no pur- 
poses beyond itself. There was a time when this kind of educa- 
tional thinking was prominent. Applied science was considered 
less worthy than pure science; vocation was less worthy than 
leisure; knowledge for use was considered less desirable for cul- 
tural purposes than knowledge for its own sake. Knowledge for 
its own sake and art for art's sake as conceptions of the aim of 
education still have considerable backing, especially in England, 
though they seem to be losing ground in favor of a more purpose- 
ful education. The following quotation is typical of this atti- 
tude. "What we want to see is such a rational delight in knowl- 
edge for its own sake and such liberal acquaintance with some of 
the sources of knowledge that every hour of leisure for these 
young people shall be an hour of pleasure." [128, 392.] 

However high an ideal this may be it seems to place the whole 
emphasis of a liberal education on the enjoyment of leisure. 
Secondary education is not, it seems, to serve any purpose in carry- 
ing on the world's work, nor is one's work pursued that it may 
lead into and enrich one's leisure time. Knowledge for its own 
sake as an aim in education is an attempt to counteract the tend- 
ency of making the aim of education purely materialistic, and in 
this it is a worthy purpose, but instead of recognizing other pur- 
poses and consciously seeking to attain them it turns inward upon 
itself. This seems to be the case in the following quotation [117, 
267] : "Some of those who are devoted workers in one or another 
field of science, and believe, as we do, that the natural sciences 
should hold a leading place in education, consider that to base the 
advocacy of this revolution on the facts of national success in the 
struggle for industrial and commercial supremacy and adequate 
national defense in war depends upon knowledge and skilful use of 
the discoveries of science is undesirable. They desire to see 
knowledge and the discovery of truth pursued for their own sake. 
They rightly hold that the highest efforts of the human mind in 



Meaning of Secondary Education 165 

this direction are and must be independent of the incentives and 
demands of material conflict, whether commercial or military; 
that science should be pursued for the love of science as art for 
art's sake; and that only so can science escape misdirection and 
proceed to higher and more glorious development." 

The trouble here is that it rules out of consideration other pur- 
poses however high and noble they may be, and if knowledge is 
not to serve man, the inevitable outcome is that sooner or later 
subjects will be taught because it is considered a duty that we 
study them. They will become the ends and we the means. 
[Cf. E. C. Moore, School and Society, October 27, 1917.] "Art 
for art's sake" and "knowledge for the sake of knowledge" are 
forms of idolatry, pure and simple, just as much so as "money for 
money's sake" is a form of idolatry, and if adopted as aims they 
will exact their hecatombs of human sacrifices as in the past. 
They may be higher aims than "money for money's sake" but 
they are idols just the same. [134, 754-55-] 

In the United States it is frankly stated that secondary educa- 
tion should serve purposes and that art and knowledge, like the 
Sabbath, were made for man, not he for them. We do not owe it 
to any subject to give it attention. There is no danger that vo- 
cational education will crowd out the humanities as was stated in 
Chapter IV, but man is inherently built for action and growth. 
Growth in what? In the perception of meanings, and as Dewey 
says [56, 145], "There is perhaps no better definition of culture 
than that it is the capacity for constantly expanding in range and 
accuracy one's perception of meanings." This will be the ideal in 
the new conception of culture. The instinct of curiosity will 
force the individual to keep prying into the meanings of things, 
and this means growth, and the more this prying into meanings 
is of a nature that it leads to still further prying the greater the 
growth. Growth is the only legitimate criterion, not knowledge 
for its own sake or knowledge that will not lead to further growth. 

It is probably true that those who speak of knowledge for its 
own sake really have some further desire in mind. It is incon- 
ceivable to think that we are to have no purpose in mind other 
than just to know. Why should one know just to know? Lan- 
kester, for instance, [117, 197] says: "There is a contempt for 
knowledge for its own sake and arising out of that there is infi- 
nite waste, there is planlessness, there is a habit of 'muddling 



1 66 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

through' which has at last brought us extraordinarily near to a 
crisis when it looks as though we should hardly muddle through 
at all." Knowledge for its own sake then is to "prevent infinite 
waste," is to take the place of " planlessness " and of "muddling 
through." It seems that after all knowledge is to serve purposes 
other than for its own sake. This seems to be a rather large 
program for knowledge to perform if it is to be pursued only for 
its own sake. It is just at this point that American educators 
part company with tradition. A subject is to be pursued because 
it serves real purposes but these purposes must be as broad as life 
itself. It is probable that after all there is not so much difference 
in the two opinions as at first seems possible. The American edu- 
cators wish to be exact in their procedure just as medicine and 
other professions are exact. They are pragmatic to the core. 
It is hard to see how men of high scientific ability can fail to realize 
that knowledge for its own sake is unscientific and purposeless. 
Growth and "activity leading to further activity" are much more 
purposeful and much more accurately stated. 

English educators think that "there is a danger at the present 
time that we are about to be plunged into great efforts for educa- 
tional development resting on purely utilitarian motives. Such 
efforts may succeed for a time, but in the long run they are doomed 
to failure for they take their stand upon a lie. Beauty, truth, and 
goodness cannot in the end of the day be sought for anything be- 
yond themselves." [198, 582.] They do not want their fate to 
be decided simply by the money test and it is just such a feeling 
that causes so much controversy when it is stated that education 
should be purposeful, should meet real needs. There is always a 
fear that this is plunging us straight into materialism but this 
fear is usually alleviated by stating that purposes of a higher type 
are intended. Some people seem to think that if an educational 
unit serves a purpose it is therefore reduced to a low and material- 
istic basis, but if there is no purpose beyond itself it is therefore 
worthy of highest consideration. 

From the Standpoint of the Individual Growth Should Be 
the Aim of Education 

Just as growth of civilization, world building, is the main aim of 
education when viewed from the social standpoint so growth of the 
pupil is the main aim when viewed from the standpoint of the 



Meaning of Secondary Education 167 

individual, but both the individual and society finds its own best 
expression in the fulfilment of the other. One of the most inter- 
esting and perhaps the best expression of what modern educators 
are considering as a possible solution to the unsettled conditions 
in educational philosophy is the conception of a continuously 
developing activity (leading on) as the aim of education. It is 
the principle advocated by Dewey as ever continuing growth and 
by Kilpatrick as "activity leading to further activity." This 
theory states that education is its own end, there being nothing 
to which education is subordinate save more education. That 
activity is desirable which leads to further activity and growth, 
and undesirable if the opposite is the case. " But if we start from 
the standpoint of the active powers of the children concerned," 
says Dewey [60, 63-4], "we shall measure the utility of new 
subject-matter and new modes of skill by the way in which they 
promote the growth of these powers. We shall not insist upon 
tangible material products, nor upon what is learned being put to 
further use at once in some visible way, nor even demand evidence 
that the children have become morally improved in some respect; 
save as the growth of powers is itself a moral gain." 

This theory is built on the fundamental psychological fact of 
secondary neurone connections [199, 141] which is concerned with 
the connection of two primary neurone bonds. For instance, a 
child in investigating the objects around him, finds an electric 
button. The sight of the button becomes a "situation" for the 
"response" pushing. The bell rings and this becomes a "situa- 
tion" for the "response" listening, turning in the direction whence 
comes the sound or by a general state of satisfaction. Suppose 
at first the child does not connect his push with the ring. The 
result so far will be two separate and distinct primary bonds. 
Suppose later, however, that he comes to see that his push is the 
cause of the ring, or in other words, he sees that the first bond is 
in relation to the second as cause to effect. He has made a 
secondary neurone connection, and the satisfaction that results 
is much greater than resulted from either of the primary bonds. 
To translate this into ordinary language, it signifies that the child 
has grasped a meaning. 

Suppose now that the child has made three primary bonds. 
Call each Bi. Then according to the figure there are three pos- 
sible secondary neurone connections. If the number of primary 
12 



1 68 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

bonds be increased to four the number of possible secondary con- 
nections will be increased to six, and so on, according to the for- 

n(n — i ) 
mula ■ • As the number of bonds increases the possibility 

of a network of secondary connections becomes very complex. 

These secondary neurone connections are the psychological 

Bi— Bi Bi— Bi 

\ / I X | 

Bi Bi— Bi 

counterpart of "growth," of ever increasing insight into meanings, 
of "activity leading to further activity." 

This is, however, not the total possibility of secondary neurone 
connections. Suppose now that by the process just described a 
group of bonds have become interrelated with each other and 
at the same time another group has grown up as nearly as possible 
totally separated from the first. It sometimes happens that 
these groups as groups coalesce, or group one as a group becomes 
connected with group two as a group. The increase in the sig- 
nificance of each group is manifold. Sir Isaac Newton knew 
thoroughly the laws of falling bodies. Call this group one. He 
also knew the laws of planetary motions. Call this group two. 
By a stroke of genius he came to connect these groups and the 
meaningfulness of each was increased beyond description for him- 
self, and the world even to the present day. 

The making of many, many connections and interrelating them 
is just what is going on wherever a human mind is growing. Both 
primary and secondary connections are being made in an endless 
stream. The kind of activity that best lends itself to continuing 
growth is most desirable for school purposes. It is constantly ex- 
panding one's perception of meanings. The aim of education is 
to see to it that this forming of secondary connections takes place 
all the time, and not only in school but afterwards too. This is 
the aim of education but it is also education itself. Therefore, 
education is its own end, and is subordinate to nothing save to 
more education. The aim of education is thus seen not to be 
given in terms of vocation, or of particular kinds of subject matter, 
or "of art for art's sake," or in terms of external products which 
may be seen and counted, or offered for sale, but in terms of what 
takes place in the human nervous sytem. It is the dynamic con- 
ception of education. 



Meaning of Secondary Education 169 

It is realised that one kind of activity may do this for one per- 
son and some other for another. There are different patterns of 
consciousness which are appealed to differently. In the United 
States it is insisted that each child shall have that kind of educa- 
tion that best fosters his growth. A trade may produce more 
growth in one person than anything else while Latin or mathe- 
matics may be best for another. 

This is exactly the reason whydifferentiated curriculums are the 
policy in the United States. It is thought that instruction should 
be adapted to the nature of the individual pupil or that particular 
pupil may not grow at all. But something of the same kind of 
philosophy explains the opposition to early specialisation in 
England. It is felt there that if a pupil pursues too narrow a line 
of work he soon exhausts the possibilities of growth in this line and 
goes to seed, a narrow specialist. The aims are the same but ap- 
proached from different directions. It seems then that in this 
respect both England and the United States are right. England 
is right in not wanting the pupil to be taught in such a narrow line 
that growth cannot take place. The United States is right in 
insisting that the individual pupil shall be given that kind of in- 
struction which will surely cause him to grow. England needs to 
retain her ideal of breadth, but at the same time to reach the indi- 
vidual child. The United States in reaching the individual child 
needs to remember that richness of experience is best conducive to 
growth. 

At this point lies the chief danger which those face who have 
repudiated the doctrine of formal discipline and have accepted 
the doctrine of specific disciplines. In trying to educate by spe- 
cific objectives they may be too specific; not too specific in the 
sense that they know what it is they want and the means of attain- 
ing it, but the objectives may be too narrow in scope. As a matter 
of fact those who oppose the doctrine of formal discipline have 
wished to correct just such a narrowness in practice. One of their 
principal contentions has been richness of content. They have al- 
ways insisted that if one in studying Caesar, for instance, con- 
centrates upon indirect discourse, he may learn indirect discourse, 
but if in addition to this, attention be directed to the geography of 
the country over which Caesar fought, perhaps in comparison 
with the campaigns of the recent war, the possibility of growth 
would be greatly enhanced. And if in addition to all this the 



170 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

reasons why Caesar was in Gaul should be taken up with the 
class, thus forming the basis for all that section of Roman history 
of the first century b. c, the growth might eventually be worth 
the time spent upon this study. The chief trouble with this sub- 
ject as with all other subjects of study has been that teachers have 
not been able to grasp their full possibilities for the pupil's growth. 

The older subjects were superior in that the teachers knew more 
definitely what to require of the pupil, but unfortunately except 
in the hands of a very skillful teacher the bonds were primary 
bonds. Secondary neurone connections were few. Meaning 
was sacrificed to technique. President Hadley says on this point 
[83, 540], "And even with the men to whose intellectual temper 
the old curriculum was best suited it did little for real culture. 
The student's time was so taken up with the solution of the mathe- 
matical problems before him that he lost sight of the bearings of 
mathematics on modern science and modern affairs. He was so 
absorbed in the work of translating sentences of Latin and Greek, 
that he missed the value of the contents of the books themselves." 

Growth, therefore, according to this theory does not take place 
when the pupil is narrowly trained in any one line, be it language, 
science, or vocation. It does not take place when the pupil 
crams fact after fact at the expense of meaning. These are the 
primary bonds. Meanings may be built from them as raw mate- 
rials but not necessarily so, unless this is a definite concern of the 
teacher. Growth does take place when the whole environment of 
the child is used in order to supply motive and meaning to his 
work. [54, 252.] This is what Dewey has in mind in his whole 
educational philosophy as shown above. (Chapter IV.) 

After the pupil has left school all too often he, as a worker, is cut 
off from the significance of what he is doing. He does his work 
mechanically with the money reward in mind, without any thought 
of its social significance. There are certain bonds necessary for 
the performance of his daily tasks. Let us say that this group of 
bonds is in perfect working order. There may be, and there will 
be if the worker is a healthy individual, a number of tentacles, or 
sprouts, figuratively speaking, reaching out from these bonds to 
connect with others. This is curiosity, a desire to know, a readi- 
ness of the bonds to act, but the worker may be situated in such a 
way that with every turn of the wheel his curiosity is dulled, the 
tentacles may be cropped as it were, prevented from connecting 



Meaning of Secondary Education 171 

with other bonds, and hence one's life becomes dull. He is not 
growing in the perception of meanings. His is not an activity 
that leads to further activity. 

The Conception of Culture Examined in the Light of Activity 
Leading to Further Activity. The conception of activity leading 
to further activity as the fundamental aim in education gives a 
new standard by which to examine the conception of culture. 
This conception puts the whole emphasis not on what the pupil 
has studied but on the effect produced in him. It is the psycho- 
logical conception of culture. If what one studies brings about 
growth it is cultural to that extent. The American ideal is first 
to meet the social and individual, the mental, moral, and physical 
needs of the child, and reformulate the definition of culture so that 
it will accord with the training thus received. In fact the term 
cultivation more nearly describes the American conception of cul- 
ture. Eliot expresses this position very clearly [66, 355]: "The 
idea of a cultivated person, man or woman, has distinctly changed 
during the past thirty-five years. Cultivation a generation ago 
meant acquaintance with letters and the fine arts, and some 
knowledge of at least two languages and literatures, and of 
history. The term 'cultivation' is now much more inclusive. 
It includes elementary knowledge of the sciences, and it ranks 
high the subjects of history, government, and economics." 

This idea is exactly in accord with activity leading to further 
activity. The different subjects may each contribute something 
toward culture. The amount would differ in degree, not in kind. 
Subjects would no longer be separated into cultural and non-cul- 
tural subjects. There would be no dualism between the culture of 
vocation and that of leisure for each would have a cultivating 
value. One of course might yield a greater return than the other. 

Eliot [66, 361] says that "there was a time when the principal 
part of the work of universities was training scholarly young men 
for the service of the Church, the Bar, and the State; and all such 
young men needed, or were believed to need, an intimate knowl- 
edge of Greek and Latin; but now, and for more than a hundred 
years, universities are called on to train young men in public 
service in new democracies, for a new medical profession, and for 
finances, journalism, transportation, manufacturing, the new 
architecture, the building of vessels and railroads, and the direc- 
tion of great public works which improve agriculture, conserve 



172 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

the national resources, provide pure water supplies, and distribute 
light, heat and mechanical power." According to the more recent 
conception of culture those who have been adequately trained for 
the newer professions belong to the cultured class. 

If the above conception of the meaning of culture be accepted, 
it can no longer be said that the purpose with which a person 
studies a subject will determine whether or not it will be cultural. 
Thus Cubberley says [47, 463], "What is vocational for one is 
liberal for another. The study of chemistry, for example, which 
is usually classified with the technical-vocational group, and is so 
for the future chemist or engineer, is broadly liberal when pur- 
sued by the classical student. The same is true of geology, 
biology, economics, or modern industrial history. Conversely, 
courses in literature, world history, economics, and the life and 
literature of Greece and Rome would be liberal studies to the 
technical or the scientific student." 

It is plain that the basis for determining the cultural value of a 
subject here is the aim with which one pursues the subject. Ac- 
cording to the conception of education as growth it depends upon 
the effect that a subject produces upon one, not upon the purpose 
with which one pursues the subject, as to whether itwill be cultural. 
The amount of cultivation received, even if the pupil has in mind 
some specialized vocational calling, is the true standard. If his 
range of the perception of meanings is expanded it is cultural, 
otherwise not. 

This is, however, a more advanced conception than the one 
that considers, since at some time or other, certain subjects have 
given fruitful results in developing children and culture has come 
to be linked with a pursuit of these subjects, that the definition of 
culture should be synonymous with the pursuit of them. The 
United States is not inconsiderate of culture, but is unwilling to 
accept a definition that is separated from the effect produced in 
pupils. Agriculture may for some pupils be more cultural than 
English literature even if they expect to make agriculture their 
vocation. 

What is the meaning then of culture in a democracy that is 
primarily engaged in industry and commerce ? What is the culture 
demanded by the new citizenship? It will certainly include 
training of the hand as well as of mind and character; labor as 
well as leisure, doing as well as knowing; intelligent participation 



Meaning of Secondary Education 173 

as well as intelligent comprehension. For this reason the primary 
purpose of the subjects that were formerly considered practical 
are now intended to be cultural. They are intended to develop an 
important side of one's personality. It is certain that the concep- 
tion of culture will include more than in the past as the quotation 
from President Eliot shows. Dewey thinks [55, 216] that any 
scheme is sure to fail that leaves industry out of consideration. 
"In short, our culture must be consonant with realistic science and 
machine industry instead of a refuge from them. And while 
there is no guaranty that an education which uses science and 
employs the controlled processes of industry as a regular part of its 
equipment will succeed, there is every assurance that an educa- 
tional system which sets science and industry in opposition to its 
ideal of culture will fail." 

This merely expresses the aims of education as broad as life, 
that is, total social efficiency. "Liberal education aims to ap- 
proach employment from the cultural side; vocational education 
plans to approach culture from the employment side. Both have 
the same ultimate objective in view; that is, total social efficiency. 
One holds that culture has been and will continue to be, based 
upon economic abundance; the other that prosperity should fol- 
low, rather than precede, culture as a determining factor of life. 
The vocationalist is likely to hold the culturist a dreamer; the 
culturist to accuse the vocationalist of being materialistic. One 
is accused of being impractical; the other of aiming too low." 
[180, 296.] 

In accordance with these principles the conception of culture 
and of a liberal education is therefore changing in the United 
States. In England there has also been a considerable reformula- 
tion of culture. A tradition of three hundred years has been 
superseded, a tradition which tended to identify culture with a 
knowledge of the remote past. The English conception of a 
liberal education is no longer identical with a knowledge of ancient 
times but it tends to be bookish, as it is considered essential to a 
liberal education that one should have received instruction in the 
subjects mentioned in the last part of Chapter III [Cf. in, 16]. 
Science and Modern Studies and even manual training, it will be 
noticed are included in the list. It seems, however, that this con- 
ception tends to put too much emphasis on knowledge about what 
has been said and done, and stresses too little the doing side of life. 



174 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

It is, however, more acceptable than one which identifies culture 
almost exclusively with a knowledge of ancient times, since it may 
also include a knowledge of recent times. The danger of such a 
conception is that it may degenerate into a belief in art for art's 
sake, or knowledge for its own sake, but from the broad program 
for the reorganization of secondary education which England has 
adopted, it seems that this danger has, at least for the time being, 
been successfully avoided. 

To prevent just such a situation is the reason why the Com- 
mission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education sets up 
objectives as the basis for reorganization rather than subject 
matter. By a comparison of the two pamphlets 1 from each of 
which extensive quotations have already been made one can gain 
an idea of the possible future educational development in the two 
countries. Each of these shows that there is a need for a clearer 
understanding of the meaning of secondary education in a 
democracy. There are, however, decided differences in their 
modes of attack. As was shown in Chapter III the basis of re- 
organization in England is that of the subjects of study, their 
place and function in the curriculum, while in the United States 
there is a new basis of organization, objectives and group dif- 
ferentiation. 

This difference in approach to the reorganization of secondary 
education gives a basis for making some fundamental comparisons 
between the two systems. The English emphasize the humanis- 
tic-cultural studies; the Americans stress the social-civic and allied 
subjects. In other words England still defines secondary educa- 
tion as so much subject matter while in the United States in- 
telligent citizenship is the controlling idea. At the same time 
England aims to secure a high grade of citizenship, and the United 
States that pupils may have a broad outlook on life. In England 
the classics have for centuries been the humanistic studies and 
England still puts high evaluation on the traditional and the past, 
but now in addition it is thought that the sciences, modern stud- 
ies, and even craft culture may likewise be humane. The United 
States emphasizes the present and here all studies aim to secure 
socialization, as was shown in Chapter V. The danger in England 



1 Sir F. G. Kenyon, Education Scientific and Humane, August, 1917, and 
Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education, Bulletin, 1918, No. 35, United 
States Bureau of Education. 



Meaning of Secondary Education 175 

is that secondary education may become bookish. The danger in 
the United States is that it may become narrowly vocational and 
technical. In England the aim is to train leaders, the brightest 
pupils being selected wherever they may be found for secondary 
education, as was shown in Chapter II. In the United States the 
aim is to develop the whole mass of the people with the expecta- 
tion that leaders will emerge. The objectives which the United 
States sets out to achieve have already been given. There are 
likewise objectives which England seeks to attain. When the dif- 
ferent committees met to discuss the content of secondary educa- 
tion in 191 7 as reported by Kenyon they stated that the first ob- 
ject of secondary education is "to train human beings in mind and 
character as citizens of a free country." [no, 10.] In another 
place it is expressed as "a preparation for the whole of life." 
[no, 6.] In accordance with the last statement it has been agreed 
that "'humanistic' studies should be scientific, and 'scientific' 
studies humane." [110,9.] Consequently, in the formulation of 
the curriculum both science and humanistic studies should have a 
place. 

Conclusions 

In preceding chapters it has been shown that there is a decided 
difference between the English and American attitudes toward 
vocational education in the secondary schools. The comparison 
of principles shows why. The United States considers the prep- 
aration for vocations an essential ally of the social-civic objective. 
When given early, England does not consider it a necessary part 
of the humanistic-cultural ideal. It is even antagonistic so it 
is thought. The aims of secondary education are, however, not 
very well defined in either country. 

This lack of clearly conceived aims is the main point of differ- 
ence between England and the United States, on the one hand, 
and Germany on the other. There was no such confusion in 
educational aims and purposes in Germany. The function of the 
school was definitely known. It was to be the servant of the 
aristocratic state in peace and war. In other words, there was a 
definite purpose and behind this purpose certain principles to be 
used as guideposts toward its attainment. Means were carefully 
adjusted to ends and towards the attainment of these ends every 
phase of educational administration, educational subject matter, 



176 Secondary Education in England and the United States 

and educational method were mobilized. To organize all educa- 
tional resources as efficiently for democracy as Germany did for 
autocracy is the fundamental problem for school men in England 
and the United States. For as true democracy is a much harder 
form of government to conduct successfully than an autocracy, so 
a system of education suited to a democracy requires a much wiser 
organization than a system suited to an autocracy. For in an 
autocracy it is sufficient that the masses be trained to make a liv- 
ing and to be governed ; any other type than that would endanger 
the ruling classes. In a democracy on the other hand, full com- 
plete living as coworkers in an intelligent social order is the goal 
to be reached. It is, therefore, necessary for citizens of a democ- 
racy to learn to organize their educational forces efficiently or else 
liberty and democracy cannot endure. 



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VITA 

James William Norman was born December 20, 1884, in 
Elbert County, Georgia. 

He attended rural schools until 1899 when he entered the Hart- 
well High School, Hartwell, Georgia, where he received the high 
school diploma in 1901. Entering Mercer University, Macon, 
Georgia, in September, 1902, he graduated in 1906 with the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts. The year 1906-07 was spent in the Graduate 
School of Harvard University. He was co-principal of Hearn 
Academy, Cave Spring, Georgia, 1907-08, and held the chair of 
Mathematics and Education at Howard College, Birmingham, 
Alabama, 1 908-1 1. He attended the University of Chicago Sum- 
mer School in 1909, and reentered Harvard University in 191 1, 
receiving the degree of Master of Arts in 1912. He was Exchange 
Teacher to the Oberrealschule, Potsdam, Germany, 191 2-1 3, at- 
tending lectures at the University of Berlin at the same time. He 
entered Teachers College, Columbia University, 191 3, and took 
the preliminary examinations for the degree of Doctor of Philoso- 
phy in May, 1914. He held the chair of Education in Richmond 
College, Virginia, 1914-15. He taught in the Summer School 
of Howard College, Birmingham, Alabama, 191 5, and was in- 
structor in the University of Minnesota from the fall of 19 15 to 
October, 1916, when he accepted a professorship of Education in 
the University of Florida which position he still holds. He at- 
tended Teachers College, Columbia University from July, 1918, to 
August, 19 19, being given a leave of absence from the University 
of Florida in the meantime. 



187 



